Photograph of Battleship Row taken from a Japanese plane at the beginning of the attack. The explosion in the center is a torpedo strike on USS West Virginia. Two attacking Japanese planes can be seen: one over USS Neosho and one over the Naval Yard.

The attack commenced at 7:48 a.m. Hawaiian Time (18:18 UTC).[14] The base was attacked by 353[15] Imperial Japanese aircraft (including fighters, level and dive bombers, and torpedo bombers) in two waves, launched from six aircraft carriers.[15] All eight U.S. Navy battleships were damaged, with four sunk. All but the USS Arizona were later raised, and six were returned to service and went on to fight in the war. The Japanese also sank or damaged three cruisers, three destroyers, an anti-aircraft training ship,[nb 4] and one minelayer. 188 U.S. aircraft were destroyed; 2,403 Americans were killed and 1,178 others were wounded.[17] Important base installations such as the power station, dry dock, shipyard, maintenance, and fuel and torpedo storage facilities, as well as the submarine piers and headquarters building (also home of the intelligence section), were not attacked. Japanese losses were light: 29 aircraft and five midget submarines lost, and 64 servicemen killed. One Japanese sailor, Kazuo Sakamaki, was captured.

There were numerous historical precedents for unannounced military action by Japan, but the lack of any formal warning, particularly while negotiations were still apparently ongoing, led President Franklin D. Roosevelt to proclaim December 7, 1941, "a date which will live in infamy". Because the attack happened without a declaration of war and without explicit warning, the attack on Pearl Harbor was later judged in the Tokyo Trials to be a war crime.[21][22]

Background to conflict

Diplomatic background

War between Japan and the United States had been a possibility that each nation had been aware of (and developed contingency plans for) since the 1920s, though tensions did not begin to grow seriously until Japan's 1931 invasion of Manchuria. Over the next decade, Japan continued to expand into China, leading to all-out war between those countries in 1937. Japan spent considerable effort trying to isolate China and achieve sufficient resource independence to attain victory on the mainland; the "Southern Operation" was designed to assist these efforts.[23]

Pearl Harbor on October 30, 1941, looking southwest

From December 1937, events such as the Japanese attack on USS Panay, the Allison incident, and the Nanking Massacre (the International Military Tribunal of the Far East concluded that more than 200,000 Chinese non-combatants were killed in indiscriminate massacres, though other estimates have ranged from 40,000 to more than 300,000) swung public opinion in the West sharply against Japan. Fearing Japanese expansion,[24] the United States, the United Kingdom, and France provided loan assistance for war supply contracts to China.

In 1940, Japan invaded French Indochina in an effort to control supplies reaching China, the United States halted shipments of airplanes, parts, machine tools, and aviation gasoline to Japan, which was perceived by Japan as an unfriendly act.[nb 5] The U.S. did not stop oil exports to Japan at that time in part because prevailing sentiment in Washington was that such an action would be an extreme step that Japan would likely consider a provocation, given Japanese dependence on U.S. oil.[26][27]

Early in 1941, PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt moved the Pacific Fleet to Hawaii from its previous base in San Diego and ordered a military buildup in the Philippines in the hope of discouraging Japanese aggression in the Far East. Because the Japanese high command was (mistakenly) certain that any attack on the UK's Southeast Asian colonies, including Singapore,[28] would bring the U.S. into war, a devastating preventive strike appeared to be the only way to avoid U.S. naval interference.[29] An invasion of the Philippines was also considered necessary by Japanese war planners, the U.S. War Plan Orange had envisioned defending the Philippines with a 40,000-man elite force. This was opposed by Douglas MacArthur, who felt that he would need a force ten times that size, and was never implemented.[30] By 1941, U.S. planners anticipated abandonment of the Philippines at the outbreak of war and orders to that effect were given in late 1941 to Admiral Thomas Hart, commander of the Asiatic Fleet.[31]

The U.S. ceased oil exports to Japan in July 1941, following Japanese expansion into French Indochina after the Fall of France, in part because of new American restrictions on domestic oil consumption.[32] This in turn caused the Japanese to proceed with plans to take the Dutch East Indies, an oil-rich territory,[nb 6] on August 17, Roosevelt warned Japan that the U.S. was prepared to take steps against Japan if it attacked "neighboring countries".[34] The Japanese were faced with the option of either withdrawing from China and losing face or seizing and securing new sources of raw materials in the resource-rich, European-controlled colonies of Southeast Asia.

Japan and the U.S. engaged in negotiations during the course of 1941 in an effort to improve relations. During these negotiations, Japan offered to withdraw from most of China and Indochina when peace was made with the Nationalist government, adopt an independent interpretation of the Tripartite Pact, and not to discriminate in trade provided all other countries reciprocated. Washington rejected these proposals. Japanese Prime Minister Konoye then offered to meet with Roosevelt, but Roosevelt insisted on coming to an agreement before any meeting,[35] the U.S. ambassador to Japan repeatedly urged Roosevelt to accept the meeting, warning that it was the only way to preserve the conciliatory Konoye government and peace in the Pacific.[36] His recommendation was not acted upon, the Konoye government collapsed the following month when the Japanese military refused to agree to the withdrawal of all troops from China.[37]

Japan's final proposal, on November 20, offered to withdraw their forces from southern Indochina and not to launch any attacks in Southeast Asia provided that the U.S., the UK, and the Netherlands ceased aiding China and lifted their sanctions against Japan.[37] The American counter-proposal of November 26 (November 27 in Japan) (the Hull note) required Japan to evacuate all of China without conditions and conclude non-aggression pacts with Pacific powers, however the day before the Hull Note was delivered, on November 26 in Japan, the main Japanese attack fleet left port for Pearl Harbor.

Over the next several months, pilots were trained, equipment was adapted, and intelligence was collected, despite these preparations, Emperor Hirohito did not approve the attack plan until November 5, after the third of four Imperial Conferences called to consider the matter.[43] Final authorization was not given by the emperor until December 1, after a majority of Japanese leaders advised him the "Hull Note" would "destroy the fruits of the China incident, endanger Manchukuo and undermine Japanese control of Korea."[44]

By late 1941, many observers believed that hostilities between the U.S. and Japan were imminent. A Gallup poll just before the attack on Pearl Harbor found that 52% of Americans expected war with Japan, 27% did not, and 21% had no opinion.[45] While U.S. Pacific bases and facilities had been placed on alert on many occasions, U.S. officials doubted Pearl Harbor would be the first target; instead, they expected the Philippines would be attacked first. This presumption was due to the threat that the air bases throughout the country and the naval base at Manila posed to sea lanes, as well as to the shipment of supplies to Japan from territory to the south,[46] they also incorrectly believed that Japan was not capable of mounting more than one major naval operation at a time.[47]

Objectives

The Japanese attack had several major aims. First, it intended to destroy important American fleet units, thereby preventing the Pacific Fleet from interfering with Japanese conquest of the Dutch East Indies and Malaya and to enable Japan to conquer Southeast Asia without interference. Second, it was hoped to buy time for Japan to consolidate its position and increase its naval strength before shipbuilding authorized by the 1940 Vinson-Walsh Act erased any chance of victory.[48][49] Third, to deliver a blow to America's ability to mobilize its forces in the Pacific, battleships were chosen as the main targets, since they were the prestige ships of any navy at the time.[48] Finally, it was hoped that the attack would undermine American morale such that the U.S. government would drop its demands contrary to Japanese interests, and would seek a compromise peace with Japan.[50][51]

Striking the Pacific Fleet at anchor in Pearl Harbor carried two distinct disadvantages: the targeted ships would be in very shallow water, so it would be relatively easy to salvage and possibly repair them; and most of the crews would survive the attack, since many would be on shore leave or would be rescued from the harbor. A further important disadvantage—this of timing, and known to the Japanese—was the absence from Pearl Harbor of all three of the U.S. Pacific Fleet's aircraft carriers (Enterprise, Lexington, and Saratoga). IJN top command was so imbued with Admiral Mahan's "Decisive battle" doctrine—especially that of destroying the maximum number of battleships—that, despite these concerns, Yamamoto decided to press ahead.[52][page needed]

Japanese confidence in their ability to achieve a short, victorious war also meant other targets in the harbor, especially the navy yard, oil tank farms, and submarine base, were ignored, since—by their thinking—the war would be over before the influence of these facilities would be felt.[53]

Approach and attack

On November 26, 1941, a Japanese task force (the Striking Force) of six aircraft carriers—Akagi, Kaga, Sōryū, Hiryū, Shōkaku, and Zuikaku—departed northern Japan en route to a position northwest of Hawaii, intending to launch its 408 aircraft to attack Pearl Harbor: 360 for the two attack waves and 48 on defensive combat air patrol (CAP), including nine fighters from the first wave.

The first wave was to be the primary attack, while the second wave was to attack carriers as its first objective and cruisers as its second, with battleships as the third target,[54] the first wave carried most of the weapons to attack capital ships, mainly specially adapted Type 91aerial torpedoes which were designed with an anti-roll mechanism and a rudder extension that let them operate in shallow water.[55] The aircrews were ordered to select the highest value targets (battleships and aircraft carriers) or, if these were not present, any other high value ships (cruisers and destroyers). First wave dive bombers were to attack ground targets. Fighters were ordered to strafe and destroy as many parked aircraft as possible to ensure they did not get into the air to intercept the bombers, especially in the first wave. When the fighters' fuel got low they were to refuel at the aircraft carriers and return to combat. Fighters were to serve CAP duties where needed, especially over U.S. airfields.[citation needed]

Before the attack commenced, two reconnaissance aircraft launched from cruisers Chikuma and Tone were sent to scout over Oahu and Maui and report on U.S. fleet composition and location. Reconnaissance aircraft flights risked alerting the U.S.,[56] and were not necessary. U.S. fleet composition and preparedness information in Pearl Harbor was already known due to the reports of the Japanese spy Takeo Yoshikawa. A report of the absence of the U.S. fleet in Lahaina anchorage off Maui was received from the fleet submarine I-72.[57] Another four scout planes patrolled the area between the Japanese carrier force (the Kidō Butai) and Niihau, to detect any counterattack.[58]

A third midget submarine, Ha-19, grounded twice, once outside the harbor entrance and again on the east side of Oahu, where it was captured on December 8.[66] Ensign Kazuo Sakamaki swam ashore and was captured by Hawaii National Guard Corporal David Akui, becoming the first Japanese prisoner of war.[nb 10] A fourth had been damaged by a depth charge attack and was abandoned by its crew before it could fire its torpedoes.[67] Japanese forces received a radio message from a midget submarine at 00:41 on December 8 claiming damage to one or more large warships inside Pearl Harbor.[68]

In 1992, 2000, and 2001, Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory's submersibles found the wreck of the fifth midget submarine lying in three parts outside Pearl Harbor. The wreck was in the debris field where much surplus U.S. equipment was dumped after the war, including vehicles and landing craft. Both of its torpedoes were missing, this correlates with reports of two torpedoes fired at the light cruiserSt. Louis at 10:04 at the entrance of Pearl Harbor, and a possible torpedo fired at destroyer Helm at 08:21.[69]

Japanese declaration of war

The attack took place before any formal declaration of war was made by Japan, but this was not Admiral Yamamoto's intention, he originally stipulated that the attack should not commence until thirty minutes after Japan had informed the United States that peace negotiations were at an end.[citation needed] However, the attack began before the notice could be delivered. Tokyo transmitted the 5000-word notification (commonly called the "14-Part Message") in two blocks to the Japanese Embassy in Washington. Transcribing the message took too long for the Japanese ambassador to deliver it on schedule; in the event, it was not presented until more than an hour after the attack began. (In fact, U.S. code breakers had already deciphered and translated most of the message hours before he was scheduled to deliver it.)[70] The final part is sometimes described as a declaration of war. While it was viewed by a number of senior U.S government and military officials as a very strong indicator negotiations were likely to be terminated[71] and that war might break out at any moment,[72] it neither declared war nor severed diplomatic relations. A declaration of war was printed on the front page of Japan's newspapers in the evening edition of December 8,[73] but not delivered to the U.S. government until the day after the attack.

For decades, conventional wisdom held that Japan attacked without first formally breaking diplomatic relations only because of accidents and bumbling that delayed the delivery of a document hinting at war to Washington; in 1999, however, Takeo Iguchi, a professor of law and international relations at International Christian University in Tokyo, discovered documents that pointed to a vigorous debate inside the government over how, and indeed whether, to notify Washington of Japan's intention to break off negotiations and start a war, including a December 7 entry in the war diary saying, "[O]ur deceptive diplomacy is steadily proceeding toward success." Of this, Iguchi said, "The diary shows that the army and navy did not want to give any proper declaration of war, or indeed prior notice even of the termination of negotiations ... and they clearly prevailed."[74][75]

In any event, even if the Japanese had decoded and delivered the 14-Part Message before the beginning of the attack, it would not have constituted either a formal break of diplomatic relations or a declaration of war, the final two paragraphs of the message read:

Thus the earnest hope of the Japanese Government to adjust Japanese-American relations and to preserve and promote the peace of the Pacific through cooperation with the American Government has finally been lost.

The Japanese Government regrets to have to notify hereby the American Government that in view of the attitude of the American Government it cannot but consider that it is impossible to reach an agreement through further negotiations.[76]

As the first wave approached Oahu, it was detected by the U.S. Army SCR-270 radar at Opana Point near the island's northern tip, this post had been in training mode for months, but was not yet operational.[80] The operators, Privates George Elliot Jr. and Joseph Lockard, reported a target.[81] But Lieutenant Kermit A. Tyler, a newly assigned officer at the thinly manned Intercept Center, presumed it was the scheduled arrival of six B-17 bombers from California. The Japanese planes were approaching from a direction very close (only a few degrees difference) to the bombers,[82] and while the operators had never seen a formation as large on radar, they neglected to tell Tyler of its size.[83] Tyler, for security reasons, could not tell the operators of the six B-17s that were due (even though it was widely known).[83]

As the first wave planes approached Oahu, they encountered and shot down several U.S. aircraft. At least one of these radioed a somewhat incoherent warning. Other warnings from ships off the harbor entrance were still being processed or awaiting confirmation when the attacking planes began bombing and strafing. Nevertheless, it is not clear any warnings would have had much effect even if they had been interpreted correctly and much more promptly, the results the Japanese achieved in the Philippines were essentially the same as at Pearl Harbor, though MacArthur had almost nine hours warning that the Japanese had already attacked Pearl Harbor.

The air portion of the attack began at 7:48 a.m. Hawaiian Time[14] (3:18 a.m. December 8 Japanese Standard Time, as kept by ships of the Kido Butai),[84][nb 12] with the attack on Kaneohe. A total of 353[15] Japanese planes in two waves reached Oahu. Slow, vulnerable torpedo bombers led the first wave, exploiting the first moments of surprise to attack the most important ships present (the battleships), while dive bombers attacked U.S. air bases across Oahu, starting with Hickam Field, the largest, and Wheeler Field, the main U.S. Army Air Forces fighter base, the 171 planes in the second wave attacked the Army Air Forces' Bellows Field near Kaneohe on the windward side of the island, and Ford Island. The only aerial opposition came from a handful of P-36 Hawks, P-40 Warhawks, and some SBD Dauntless dive bombers from the carrier Enterprise.[nb 13]

A destroyed Vindicator at Ewa field, the victim of one of the smaller attacks on the approach to Pearl Harbor

In the first wave attack, about eight of the forty-nine 800 kg (1760 lb) armor-piercing bombs dropped hit their intended battleship targets. At least two of those bombs broke up on impact, another detonated before penetrating an unarmored deck, and one was a dud. Thirteen of the forty torpedoes hit battleships, and four torpedoes hit other ships.[85] Men aboard U.S. ships awoke to the sounds of alarms, bombs exploding, and gunfire, prompting bleary-eyed men to dress as they ran to General Quarters stations. (The famous message, "Air raid Pearl Harbor. This is not drill.",[nb 14] was sent from the headquarters of Patrol Wing Two, the first senior Hawaiian command to respond.) The defenders were very unprepared. Ammunition lockers were locked, aircraft parked wingtip to wingtip in the open to prevent sabotage,[86] guns unmanned (none of the Navy's 5"/38s, only a quarter of its machine guns, and only four of 31 Army batteries got in action).[86] Despite this low alert status, many American military personnel responded effectively during the attack.[nb 15] Ensign Joe Taussig Jr., aboard Nevada, commanded the ship's antiaircraft guns and was severely wounded, but continued to be on post. Lt. Commander F. J. Thomas commanded Nevada in the captain's absence and got her under way until the ship was grounded at 9:10 a.m.[87] One of the destroyers, Aylwin, got underway with only four officers aboard, all ensigns, none with more than a year's sea duty; she operated at sea for 36 hours before her commanding officer managed to get back aboard.[88] Captain Mervyn Bennion, commanding West Virginia, led his men until he was cut down by fragments from a bomb which hit Tennessee, moored alongside.

The second wave was divided into three groups. One was tasked to attack Kāneʻohe, the rest Pearl Harbor proper, the separate sections arrived at the attack point almost simultaneously from several directions.

American casualties and damage

Ninety minutes after it began, the attack was over. 2,008 sailors were killed and 710 others wounded; 218 soldiers and airmen (who were part of the Army until the independent U.S. Air Force was formed in 1947) were killed and 364 wounded; 109 marines were killed and 69 wounded; and 68 civilians were killed and 35 wounded. In total, 2,403 Americans died and 1,178 were wounded.[89] Eighteen ships were sunk or run aground, including five battleships.[4][5] All of the Americans killed or wounded during the attack were non-combatants, given the fact there was no state of war when the attack occurred.[21][22][90]

USS Arizona during the attack

USS Nevada, on fire and down at the bow, attempting to leave the harbor before being deliberately beached

Of the American fatalities, nearly half were due to the explosion of Arizona's forward magazine after it was hit by a modified 16-inch (410 mm) shell.[nb 16]

Already damaged by a torpedo and on fire amidships, Nevada attempted to exit the harbor, she was targeted by many Japanese bombers as she got under way and sustained more hits from 250 lb (113 kg) bombs, which started further fires. She was deliberately beached to avoid blocking the harbor entrance.

California was hit by two bombs and two torpedoes. The crew might have kept her afloat, but were ordered to abandon ship just as they were raising power for the pumps. Burning oil from Arizona and West Virginia drifted down on her, and probably made the situation look worse than it was, the disarmed target shipUtah was holed twice by torpedoes. West Virginia was hit by seven torpedoes, the seventh tearing away her rudder. Oklahoma was hit by four torpedoes, the last two above her belt armor, which caused her to capsize. Maryland was hit by two of the converted 16" shells, but neither caused serious damage.

Although the Japanese concentrated on battleships (the largest vessels present), they did not ignore other targets, the light cruiser Helena was torpedoed, and the concussion from the blast capsized the neighboring minelayer Oglala. Two destroyers in dry dock, Cassin and Downes were destroyed when bombs penetrated their fuel bunkers. The leaking fuel caught fire; flooding the dry dock in an effort to fight fire made the burning oil rise, and both were burned out. Cassin slipped from her keel blocks and rolled against Downes. The light cruiser Raleigh was holed by a torpedo, the light cruiser Honolulu was damaged, but remained in service. The repair vessel Vestal, moored alongside Arizona, was heavily damaged and beached, the seaplane tender Curtiss was also damaged. The destroyer Shaw was badly damaged when two bombs penetrated her forward magazine.[91]

This message denotes the first U.S. ship, St. Louis to clear Pearl Harbor. (National Archives and Records Administration) (Note that this is in answer to question "Is channel clear?" and faint writing at bottom concerning the answer being held until St. Louis had successfully cleared.)

Of the 402[15] American aircraft in Hawaii, 188 were destroyed and 159 damaged,[15] 155 of them on the ground. Almost none were actually ready to take off to defend the base. Eight Army Air Forces pilots managed to get airborne during the attack[92] and six were credited with downing at least one Japanese aircraft during the attack: 1st Lt. Lewis M. Sanders, 2nd Lt. Philip M. Rasmussen, 2nd Lt. Kenneth M. Taylor, 2nd Lt. George S. Welch, 2nd Lt. Harry W. Brown, and 2nd Lt. Gordon H. Sterling Jr. Sterling was shot down by Lt. Fujita over Kaneohe Bay and is listed as Body Not Recovered (not Missing In Action). Lt. John L. Dains was killed by friendly fire returning from a victory over Kaawa.[93][94] Of 33 PBYs in Hawaii, 24 were destroyed, and six others damaged beyond repair. (The three on patrol returned undamaged.) Friendly fire brought down some U.S. planes on top of that, including five from an inbound flight from Enterprise. Japanese attacks on barracks killed additional personnel.

At the time of the attack, nine civilian aircraft were flying in the vicinity of Pearl Harbor. Of these, three were shot down.[89]

Japanese losses

Fifty-five Japanese airmen and nine submariners were killed in the attack, and one was captured. Of Japan's 414[78] available planes, 29 were lost during the battle (nine in the first attack wave, 20 in the second),[95][nb 17] with another 74 damaged by antiaircraft fire from the ground.

Possible third wave

Several Japanese junior officers including Fuchida and Genda urged Nagumo to carry out a third strike in order to destroy as much of Pearl Harbor's fuel and torpedo[nb 18] storage, maintenance, and dry dock facilities as possible.[96] Genda, who had unsuccessfully advocated for invading Hawaii after the air attack, believed that without an invasion three strikes were necessary to disable the base as much as possible.[97] The captains of the other five carriers in the task force reported they were willing and ready to carry out a third strike.[98] Military historians have suggested the destruction of these shore facilities would have hampered the U.S. Pacific Fleet far more seriously than the loss of its battleships.[99] If they had been wiped out, "serious [American] operations in the Pacific would have been postponed for more than a year";[100] according to Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, later Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet, "it would have prolonged the war another two years."[101] Nagumo, however, decided to withdraw for several reasons:

American anti-aircraft performance had improved considerably during the second strike, and two thirds of Japan's losses were incurred during the second wave.[102]

Nagumo felt if he launched a third strike, he would be risking three quarters of the Combined Fleet's strength to wipe out the remaining targets (which included the facilities) while suffering higher aircraft losses.[102]

The location of the American carriers remained unknown. In addition, the admiral was concerned his force was now within range of American land-based bombers.[102] Nagumo was uncertain whether the U.S. had enough surviving planes remaining on Hawaii to launch an attack against his carriers.[103]

A third wave would have required substantial preparation and turnaround time, and would have meant returning planes would have had to land at night. At the time, only the Royal Navy had developed night carrier techniques, so this was a substantial risk.[104]

The task force's fuel situation did not permit him to remain in waters north of Pearl Harbor much longer, since he was at the very limit of logistical support. To do so risked running unacceptably low on fuel, perhaps even having to abandon destroyers en route home.[105]

He believed the second strike had essentially satisfied the main objective of his mission—the neutralization of the Pacific Fleet—and did not wish to risk further losses.[106] Moreover, it was Japanese Navy practice to prefer the conservation of strength over the total destruction of the enemy.[107]

At a conference aboard Yamato the following morning, Yamamoto initially supported Nagumo;[106] in retrospect, sparing the vital dockyards, maintenance shops, and oil depots meant the U.S. could respond relatively quickly to Japanese activities in the Pacific. Yamamoto later regretted Nagumo's decision to withdraw and categorically stated it had been a great mistake not to order a third strike.[108]

Ships lost or damaged

Seventeen ships were damaged or lost in the attack, of which fourteen were repaired and returned to service.[109]

Salvage

After a systematic search for survivors, formal salvage operations began. Captain Homer N. Wallin, Material Officer for Commander, Battle Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet, was immediately ordered to lead salvage operations. "Within a short time I was relieved of all other duties and ordered to full time work as Fleet Salvage Officer."[111][nb 19]

Around Pearl Harbor, divers from the Navy (shore and tenders), the Naval Shipyard, and civilian contractors (Pacific Bridge and others) began work on the ships that could be refloated, they patched holes, cleared debris, and pumped water out of ships. Navy divers worked inside the damaged ships. Within six months, five battleships and two cruisers were patched or refloated so they could be sent to shipyards in Pearl Harbor and on the mainland for extensive repair.

Intensive salvage operations continued for another year, a total of some 20,000 man-hours under water.[113]Oklahoma, while successfully raised, was never repaired, and capsized while under tow to the mainland in 1947. Arizona and the target ship Utah were too heavily damaged for salvage, though much of their armament and equipment was removed and put to use aboard other vessels. Today, the two hulks remain where they were sunk,[114] with Arizona becoming a war memorial.

The day after the attack, Roosevelt delivered his famous Infamy Speech to a Joint Session of Congress, calling for a formal declaration of war on the Empire of Japan. Congress obliged his request less than an hour later, on December 11, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States, even though the Tripartite Pact did not require it.[nb 20] Congress issued a declaration of war against Germany and Italy later that same day. The UK actually declared war on Japan nine hours before the U.S. did, partially due to Japanese attacks on Malaya, Singapore and Hong Kong, and partially due to Winston Churchill's promise to declare war "within the hour" of a Japanese attack on the United States.[116]

The attack was an initial shock to all the Allies in the Pacific Theater. Further losses compounded the alarming setback. Japan attacked the Philippines hours later (because of the time difference, it was December 8 in the Philippines). Only three days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the battleships Prince of Wales and Repulse were sunk off the coast of Malaya, causing British Prime Minister Winston Churchill later to recollect "In all the war I never received a more direct shock. As I turned and twisted in bed the full horror of the news sank in upon me. There were no British or American capital ships in the Indian Ocean or the Pacific except the American survivors of Pearl Harbor who were hastening back to California, over this vast expanse of waters Japan was supreme and we everywhere were weak and naked".[117]

One further consequence of the attack on Pearl Harbor and its aftermath (notably the Niihau incident) was that Japanese American residents and citizens were relocated to nearby Japanese-American internment camps. Within hours of the attack, hundreds of Japanese American leaders were rounded up and brought to high-security camps such as Sand Island at the mouth of Honolulu harbor and Kilauea Military Camp on the island of Hawaii.[119][120] Eventually, more than 110,000 Japanese Americans, nearly all who lived on the West Coast, were forced into interior camps, but in Hawaii, where the 150,000-plus Japanese Americans composed over one-third of the population, only 1,200 to 1,800 were interned.[121][122][123]

The attack also had international consequences, the Canadian province of British Columbia, bordering the Pacific Ocean, had long had a large population of Japanese immigrants and their Japanese Canadian descendants. Pre-war tensions were exacerbated by the Pearl Harbor attack, leading to a reaction from the Government of Canada, on February 24, 1942, Order-in-Council P.C. no. 1486 was passed under the War Measures Act allowing for the forced removal of any and all Canadians of Japanese descent from British Columbia, as well as the prohibiting from them returning to the province. On 4 March, regulations under the Act were adopted to evacuate Japanese-Canadians,[124] as a result, 12,000 were interned in interior camps, 2,000 were sent to road camps and another 2,000 were forced to work in the prairies at sugar beet farms.[125]

Niihau Incident

The Japanese planners had determined that some means was required for rescuing fliers whose aircraft were too badly damaged to return to the carriers, the island of Niihau, only 30 minutes flying time from Pearl Harbor, was designated as the rescue point.

The Zero flown by Petty Officer Shigenori Nishikaichi of Hiryu was damaged in the attack on Wheeler, so he flew to the rescue point on Niihau, the aircraft was further damaged on landing. Nishikaichi was helped from the wreckage by one of the native Hawaiians, who, aware of the tension between the United States and Japan, took the pilot's maps and other documents, the island's residents had no telephones or radio and were completely unaware of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Nishikaichi enlisted the support of three Japanese-American residents in an attempt to recover the documents, during the ensuing struggles, Nishikaichi was killed and a Hawaiian civilian was wounded; one collaborator committed suicide, and his wife and the third collaborator were sent to prison.

The ease with which the local ethnic Japanese residents had apparently gone to the assistance of Nishikaichi was a source of concern for many, and tended to support those who believed that local Japanese could not be trusted.[126]

While the attack accomplished its intended objective, it turned out to be largely unnecessary. Unbeknownst to Yamamoto, who conceived the original plan, the U.S. Navy had decided as far back as 1935 to abandon 'charging' across the Pacific towards the Philippines in response to an outbreak of war (in keeping with the evolution of Plan Orange),[29] the U.S. instead adopted "Plan Dog" in 1940, which emphasized keeping the IJN out of the eastern Pacific and away from the shipping lanes to Australia, while the U.S. concentrated on defeating Nazi Germany.[128]

Fortunately for the United States, the American aircraft carriers were untouched by the Japanese attack; otherwise the Pacific Fleet's ability to conduct offensive operations would have been crippled for a year or more (given no diversions from the Atlantic Fleet). As it was, the elimination of the battleships left the U.S. Navy with no choice but to rely on its aircraft carriers and submarines—the very weapons with which the U.S. Navy halted and eventually reversed the Japanese advance. While six of the eight battleships were repaired and returned to service, their relatively low speed and high fuel consumption limited their deployment, and they served mainly in shore bombardment roles (their only major action being the Battle of Surigao Strait in October 1944). A major flaw of Japanese strategic thinking was a belief that the ultimate Pacific battle would be fought by battleships, in keeping with the doctrine of Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan, as a result, Yamamoto (and his successors) hoarded battleships for a "decisive battle" that never happened.[129]

The Japanese confidence in their ability to achieve a short, victorious war meant that they neglected Pearl Harbor's navy repair yards, oil tank farms, submarine base, and old headquarters building.[53] All of these targets were omitted from Genda's list, yet they proved more important than any battleship to the American war efforts in the Pacific, the survival of the repair shops and fuel depots allowed Pearl Harbor to maintain logistical support to the U.S. Navy's operations,[130][131] such as the Battles of Coral Sea and Midway. It was submarines that immobilized the Imperial Japanese Navy's heavy ships and brought Japan's economy to a virtual standstill by crippling the transportation of oil and raw materials: by the end of 1942, import of raw materials was cut to half of what it had been, "to a disastrous ten million tons", while oil import "was almost completely stopped".[nb 21] Lastly, the basement of the Old Administration Building was the home of the cryptanalytic unit which contributed significantly to the Midway ambush and the Submarine Force's success.[132]

Retrospective debate on American intelligence

Ever since the Japanese attack, there has been debate as to how and why the United States had been caught unaware, and how much and when American officials knew of Japanese plans and related topics. Military officers including Gen. Billy Mitchell had pointed out the vulnerability of Pearl to air attack. At least two Naval War games, one in 1932 and another in 1936, proved that Pearl was vulnerable to such an attack. Admiral James Richardson was removed from command shortly after protesting President Roosevelt's decision to move the bulk of the Pacific fleet to Pearl Harbor.[133][134]The decisions of military and political leadership to ignore these warnings has contributed to conspiracy theories. Several writers, including journalist Robert Stinnett and former United States rear admiral Robert Alfred Theobald, have argued that various parties high in the U.S. and British governments knew of the attack in advance and may even have let it happen or encouraged it in order to force the U.S. into war via the so-called "back door". However, this conspiracy theory is rejected by mainstream historians.[135][136][137][138][nb 22]

References

^USS Utah (AG-16, formerly BB-31); Utah was moored in the space intended to have been occupied by the aircraft carrier Enterprise which, returning with a task force, had been expected to enter the channel at 0730 on December 7; delayed by weather, the task force did not reach Pearl Harbor until dusk the following day.[16]

^After it was announced in September iron and steel scrap export would also be prohibited, Japanese Ambassador Horinouchi protested to Secretary Hull on October 8, 1940 warning this might be considered an "unfriendly act".[25]

^This was mainly a Japanese Navy preference; the Japanese Army would have chosen to attack the Soviet Union.[33]

^"The Dorn report did not state with certainty that Kimmel and Short knew about Taranto. There is, however, no doubt that they did know, as did the Japanese. Lt. Cdr. Takeshi Naito, the assistant naval attaché to Berlin, flew to Taranto to investigate the attack first hand, and Naito subsequently had a lengthy conversation with Cdr. Mitsuo Fuchida about his observations. Fuchida led the Japanese attack on December 7, 1941."[41]

^"A torpedo bomber needed a long, level flight, and when released, its conventional torpedo would plunge nearly a hundred feet deep before swerving upward to strike a hull. Pearl Harbor deep averages 42 feet, but the Japanese borrowed an idea from the British carrier-based torpedo raid on the Italian naval base of Taranto. They fashioned auxiliary wooden tail fins to keep the torpedoes horizontal, so they would dive to only 35 feet, and they added a breakaway "nosecone" of soft wood to cushion the impact with the surface of the water."[42]

^She was located by a University of Hawaii research submersible on August 28, 2002 in 400 m (1,300 ft) of water, 6 nmi (11 km) outside the harbor.[65]

^While the nine sailors who died in the attack were quickly lionized by the Japanese government as Kyūgunshin ("The Nine War Heroes"), the news of Sakamaki's capture, which had been publicized in U.S. news broadcasts, was kept secret. Even after the war, however, he received recriminating correspondence from those who despised him for not sacrificing his own life.

^Odd though it may sound, "not" is correct, in keeping with standard Navy telegraphic practice. This was confirmed by Beloite and Beloite after years of research and debate.

^The gunners that did get in action scored most of the victories against Japanese aircraft that morning, including the first of the attack by Tautog, and Dorie Miller's Navy Cross-worthy effort. Miller was an African-American cook aboard West Virginia who took over an unattended anti-aircraft gun on which he had no training. He was the first African-American sailor to be awarded the Navy Cross.

^The wreck has become a memorial to those lost that day, most of whom remain within the ship. She continues to leak small amounts of fuel oil, over 70 years after the attack.

^In the event, loss of these might have been a net benefit to the U.S. Blair, passim.

^Wallin had been assigned to go to Massawa in East Africa. The harbor there was blocked by scuttled Italian and German ships, which prevented British use of the port. Commander Edward Ellsberg was sent instead.[112]

^In less than eleven months, most of Japan's elite naval aviators who had been at Pearl Harbor were lost in subsequent battles. Lack of fuel and an inflexible training policy meant that they could not be replaced.[33]

^Shinsato, Douglas and Tadanori Urabe, For That One Day: The Memoirs of Mitsuo Fuchida, Commander of the Attack on Pearl Harbor, Chapters 19 and 20, eXperience, inc., Kamuela, Hawaii, 2011. ISBN978-0-9846745-0-3

^Prados, John (1995). Combined Fleet Decoded: The Secret History of American Intelligence and the Japanese Navy in World War II. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. pp. 161–177. ISBN1-55750-431-8.

^Budiansky, Stephen (2002). Battle of Wits: The Complete Story of Codebreaking in World War II. Free Press. ISBN978-0743217347.

Edwin T. Layton, Roger Pineau, and John Costello (1985), And I Was There: Pearl Harbor and Midway—Breaking the Secrets, New York: Morrow. Layton, Kimmel's Combat Intelligence Officer, says that Douglas MacArthur was the only field commander who had received any substantial amount of Purple intelligence.

George Edward Morgenstern. Pearl Harbor: The Story of the Secret War. (The Devin-Adair Company, 1947) ISBN978-1-299-05736-4. Conspiracy theory.

James Dorsey. "Literary Tropes, Rhetorical Looping, and the Nine Gods of War: 'Fascist Proclivities' Made Real," in The Culture of Japanese Fascism, ed. by Alan Tansman (Durham & London: Duke UP, 2009), pp. 409–431. A study of Japanese wartime media representations of the submarine component of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

McCollum memo A 1940 memo from a Naval headquarters staff officer to his superiors outlining possible provocations to Japan, which might lead to war (declassified in 1994).

Gordon W. Prange, At Dawn We Slept (McGraw-Hill, 1981), Pearl Harbor: The Verdict of History (McGraw-Hill, 1986), and December 7, 1941: The Day the Japanese Attacked Pearl Harbor (McGraw-Hill, 1988). This monumental trilogy, written with collaborators Donald M. Goldstein and Katherine V. Dillon, is considered the authoritative work on the subject.

Larry Kimmett and Margaret Regis, The Attack on Pearl Harbor: An Illustrated History (NavPublishing, 2004). Using maps, photos, unique illustrations, and an animated CD, this book provides a detailed overview of the surprise attack that brought the United States into World War II.

Walter Lord, Day of Infamy (Henry Holt, 1957) is a very readable, and entirely anecdotal, re-telling of the day's events.

W. J. Holmes, Double-Edged Secrets: U.S. Naval Intelligence Operations in the Pacific During World War II (Naval Institute, 1979) contains some important material, such as Holmes' argument that, had the U.S. Navy been warned of the attack and put to sea, it would have likely resulted in an even greater disaster.

Michael V. Gannon, Pearl Harbor Betrayed (Henry Holt, 2001) is a recent examination of the issues surrounding the surprise of the attack.

Henry C. Clausen and Bruce Lee, Pearl Harbor: Final Judgment, (HarperCollins, 2001), an account of the secret "Clausen Inquiry" undertaken late in the war by order of Congress to Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson.

Mary Ellen Condon-Rall, "The U.S. Army Medical Department and the Attack on Pearl Harbor". (The Journal of Medical History, January 1989). PMID11617401. This article discusses the state of medical readiness prior to the attack, and the post-attack response by medical personnel.

Roberta Wohlstetter, Pearl Harbor: Warning and Decision, (Stanford University Press: 1962). Regarded by many as the most important work in the attempt to understand the intelligence failure at Pearl Harbor, her introduction and analysis of the concept of "noise" persists in understanding intelligence failures.

John Hughes-Wilson, Military Intelligence Blunders and Cover-Ups. Robinson, 1999 (revised 2004). Contains a brief but insightful chapter on the particular intelligence failures, and broader overview of what causes them.

Douglas T. Shinsato and Tadanori Urabe, "For That One Day: The Memoirs of Mitsuo Fuchida, Commander of the Attack on Pearl Harbor". (eXperience: 2011) ISBN978-0-9846745-0-3

Horn, Steve (2005). The Second Attack on Pearl Harbor: Operation K And Other Japanese Attempts to Bomb America in World War II. Naval Institute Press. ISBN1-59114-388-8.

Daniel Madsen, Resurrection-Salvaging the Battle Fleet at Pearl Harbor. U.S. Naval Institute Press. 2003. Highly readable and thoroughly researched account of the aftermath of the attack and the salvage efforts from December 8, 1941 through early 1944.

Melber, Takuma, Pearl Harbor. Japans Angriff und der Kriegseintritt der USA. C.H. Beck, München 2016, ISBN978-3-406-69818-7. A concise introduction with a good focus oo what came before the attack and on the Japanese perspective.

Moorhead, John J. 1942 "Surgical Experience at Pearl Harbor", The Journal of the American Medical Association. An overview of different surgical procedures at the hospital at the scene of the event.

Geographic coordinate system
–
A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a

1.
Longitude lines are perpendicular and latitude lines are parallel to the equator.

Asiatic-Pacific Theater
–
The Asiatic-Pacific Theater, was the area of operations of U. S. forces during World War II in the Pacific War during 1941-45. From mid-1942 until the end of the war in 1945, there were two U. S. operational commands in the Pacific. The Pacific Ocean Areas, divided into the Central Pacific Area, the North Pacific Area, the South West Pacific Area,

1.
A map of the Asiatic-Pacific Theater showing its component areas. The China-Burma-India Theater fell under the British-led South East Asia Command.

World War II
–
World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directl

Battleship Row
–
Battleship Row was the grouping of eight U. S. battleships in port at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, when the Japanese attacked on 7 December 1941. These ships bore the brunt of the Japanese assault and they were moored next to Ford Island when the attack commenced. The ships were Arizona, California, Maryland, Nevada, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, a r

1.
The formation of ships in Battleship Row. (USS Vestal not shown)

2.
Japanese planes attacking Battleship Row, as seen from the southwest. Ford Island is in the center of the picture, and Battleship row is behind the island

USS West Virginia (BB-48)
–
USS West Virginia, a Colorado-class battleship, was the second United States Navy ship named in honor of the countrys 35th state. She was laid down on 12 April 1920 at Newport News, Virginia, launched on 19 November 1921 and her first captain was Thomas J. Senn. After her shakedown and crew training were finished, she was overhauled at Hampton Road

1.
USS West Virginia in San Francisco Bay, c. 1934

2.
Sailors in a motor launch rescue a man overboard alongside the burning West Virginia during, or shortly after, the Japanese air raid on Pearl Harbor.

USS Neosho (AO-23)
–
USS Neosho was a Cimarron-class fleet oiler serving with the United States Navy, the second ship to be named for the Neosho River in Kansas and Oklahoma. After surviving the Attack on Pearl Harbor, Neosho operated in the South Pacific, conversion at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard was completed on 7 July 1941, Neosho immediately began the vital task of

1.
History

2.
Neosho burning, 7 May 1942.

Pearl Harbor
–
Pearl Harbor is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base and it is also the headquarters of the United States Pacific Fleet. The U. S. government first obtained exclusive use of the inlet, the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Empire of Japan

Hawaii Territory
–
The Hawaii Admission Act specified that the State of Hawaii would not include Palmyra Atoll, The Midway Islands, Johnston Atoll, Sand Island, or Kingman Reef. The U. S. Congress passed the Newlands Resolution which annexed the Republic of Hawaii to the United States, Hawaiis territorial history includes a period from 1941 to 1944—during World War I

1.
On August 12, 1898, the flag of the Kingdom of Hawaii over ʻIolani Palace was lowered and the United States flag raised to signify annexation.

2.
Flag

3.
Cartoon depiction of the United States, its territories, and US controlled regions as a classroom with belligerent Philippines, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and Cuba

4.
Sanford B. Dole was sworn in as the first territorial governor on the steps of ʻ Iolani Palace as American businessmen and plantation owners lauded victory against the monarchy.

Consequences of the attack on Pearl Harbor
–
The results of the attack on Pearl Harbor were many and significant. On December 7,1941, the Japanese launched an attack on the U. S. naval base at Pearl Harbor. After two hours of bombing,18 U. S. ships were sunk or damaged,188 U. S. aircraft were destroyed, the day after the attack, President Franklin D. Roosevelt addressed a joint session of the

2.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt signing the Declaration of War against Japan on the day following the attack

3.
Japanese depiction of nine midget submarine crewmembers lost during the attack, excluding the POW, Kazuo Sakamaki.

4.
Hitler declares war against the United States in the Reichstag, 11 December 1941

United States
–
Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean,

Empire of Japan
–
The Empire of Japan was the historical Japanese nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 to the enactment of the 1947 constitution of modern Japan. Imperial Japans rapid industrialization and militarization under the slogan Fukoku Kyōhei led to its emergence as a world power, after several large-scale military su

United States Navy
–
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U. S. Navy is the largest, most capable navy in the world, the U. S. Navy has the worlds largest aircraft carrier fleet, with ten in service, two in the reserve fleet, and three new carriers

Husband E. Kimmel
–
Husband Edward Kimmel, nicknamed Kim, was a four-star admiral in the United States Navy. At the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, he was Commander-in-chief of the U. S and he was removed from command after the December 1941 attack and reduced to the two-star rank of rear admiral. He retired from the Navy in early 1942 and he married Doro

1.
Admiral Husband E. Kimmel

Walter Short
–
Short was born in 1880 in Fillmore, Illinois. The son of a doctor, he graduated from the University of Illinois in 1901 and he was commissioned a second lieutenant on March 13,1902, and assigned duty at the Presidio of San Francisco. He served in the Philippines and later Alaska, and took part in the expedition into Mexico with the 16th Infantry Re

Isoroku Yamamoto
–
Isoroku Yamamoto was a Japanese Marshal Admiral of the Navy and the commander-in-chief of the Combined Fleet during World War II until his death. Yamamoto held several important posts in the Imperial Japanese Navy, and undertook many of its changes and reorganizations and he was the commander-in-chief during the decisive early years of the Pacific

Mitsuo Fuchida
–
Mitsuo Fuchida was a Japanese captain in the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service and a bomber aviator in the Japanese navy before and during World War II. He is perhaps best known for leading the first air attacks on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. Working under the fleet commander, Vice Admiral Chūichi Nagumo. After the war ended, Fuchida became a

1.
Captain Mitsuo Fuchida

2.
Fuchida in training for attack on Pearl Harbor

United States Coast Guard
–
The United States Coast Guard is a branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the countrys seven uniformed services. This has happened twice, in 1917, during World War I, created by Congress on 4 August 1790 at the request of Alexander Hamilton as the Revenue Marine, it is the oldest continuous seagoing service of the United States. As Sec

1.
A boatswain's mate watches from the side port door as Coast Guard Cutter Bertholf's Over-The-Horizon small boat departs to receive personnel from Coast Guard Cutter Chandeleur in 2008.

2.
The official seal of the United States Coast Guard, adopted in December 1966.

Carrier Striking Task Force
–
With the Kidō Butai as its primary carrier battle group, the IJN would reign supreme for the first six months of Americas entry to World War II. In 1912, the British Royal Navy had established its own flying branch, the IJN was modeled on the Royal Navy and the IJN Admiralty sought establishment of their own Naval Air Service. The IJN had also obse

Kazuo Sakamaki
–
Kazuo Sakamaki was a Japanese naval officer who became the first Japanese prisoner of war of World War II captured by US forces. Sakamaki was born in what is now part of the city of Awa, Tokushima Prefecture and he was a graduate of the 68th class of the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy in 1940. Sakamaki was one of ten sailors selected to attack Pea

1.
Kazuo Sakamaki

2.
Sakamaki's HA-19, which ran aground

3.
HA-19 pulled up the beach.

Niihau incident
–
He was killed in a struggle with people on the island. The islands Native Hawaiian residents were unaware of the attack. Nishikaichi then sought and received the assistance of the three locals of Japanese descent on the island in overcoming his captors, finding weapons, the incident and the actions of Nishikaichis abettors demonstrated the potentia

1.
Aerial view of Ni ʻ ihau looking southwestward from the north, where the incident took place.

2.
Shigenori Nishikaichi, the pilot who became the center of the Ni ʻ ihau Incident

First Bombardment of Midway
–
The First Bombardment of Midway, or the First Bombardment of Sand Island, or Attack on Midway, was a small land and sea engagement of World War II. It occurred on the very first day of the Pacific War,7 December 1941, two Imperial Japanese destroyers bombarded Sand Island of Midway Atoll. The Japanese successfully damaged the U. S. Marine base befo

1.
Midway Atoll on November 24, 1941.

2.
A shore gun on Sand Island.

Shelling of Johnston and Palmyra
–
Johnston and Palmyra are two US-controlled atolls located in the Pacific Ocean. Johnston had been claimed for the US in 1858, Palmyra in 1859, following the Attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese navy forces attacked Allied possessions across the Pacific, including Johnston and Palmyra. Both islands had been obtained through the Guano Islands Act of 1856

1.
Maj. James Masters, USMC on Johnston, 1942

Operation K
–
It culminated on 4 March 1942, with an unsuccessful attack carried out by two Kawanishi H8K Emily flying boats. This was the longest distance ever undertaken by a bombing mission. Plans to bomb California and Texas were being discussed, when the need for updated information regarding the repairs to US Navy facilities at Pearl Harbor took precedence

Battle of Midway
–
The Battle of Midway was a decisive naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II. Military historian John Keegan called it the most stunning and decisive blow in the history of naval warfare, the Japanese hoped another demoralizing defeat would force the U. S. to capitulate in the Pacific War and thus ensure Japanese dominance in the Pacific

Pacific War
–
The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia-Pacific War, was the theater of World War II that was fought in the Pacific and East Asia. It was fought over a vast area that included the Pacific Ocean and islands, the South West Pacific, South-East Asia, and in China. The Pacific War saw the Allied powers pitted against the Empire of Japan, the formal

1.
Map showing the main areas of the conflict and Allied landings in the Pacific, 1942–45.

4.
The Pacific War Council as photographed on 12 October 1942. Pictured are representatives from the United States (seated) China, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and the Philippine Commonwealth.

Japanese invasion of French Indochina
–
The fighting, which lasted several days before the French authorities reached an agreement with the Japanese, took place in the context of the ongoing Sino-Japanese War and World War II. Japan was able to occupy Tonkin in northern Indochina, tightening the blockade of China, chinese resistance, supplied from Indochina, was tough. Then on 22 June 19

4.
Japanese guard cap, from the internment camp of Martin-des-Pallières in Saigon.

Japanese invasion of Thailand
–
The Japanese invasion of Thailand occurred on 8 December 1941. It was fought between the Kingdom of Thailand and the Empire of Japan, despite fierce fighting in southern Thailand, the resistance lasted only a matter of hours before ending in a ceasefire. The origin of Japanese invasion of Thailand can be traced to the principle of hakkō ichiu as es

Malayan Campaign
–
The Malayan Campaign was fought by Allied and Axis forces in Malaya, from 8 December 1941 –31 January 1942 during the Second World War. The Japanese had air and naval supremacy from the days of the campaign. For the British, Indian, Australian and Malayan forces defending the colony, the operation is notable for the Japanese use of bicycle infantry

1.
Japanese troops crouch in the street of Johor Bahru in the final stages of the campaign

2.
Lt Gen Arthur Percival GOC of Malaya at the time of the Japanese invasion

3.
Lt Gen Tomoyuki Yamashita, Commander of the Japanese 25th Army.

4.
Map of the Malayan Campaign

Battle of Hong Kong
–
The Battle of Hong Kong, also known as the Defence of Hong Kong and the Fall of Hong Kong, was one of the first battles of the Pacific War in World War II. On the same morning as the attack on Pearl Harbor, forces of the Empire of Japan attacked the British Crown colony of Hong Kong, the attack was in violation of international law as Japan had not

1.
Japanese troops in Tsim Sha Tsui during the Battle of Hong Kong

2.
Six weeks before the battle, this Canadian contingent arrives to bolster British presence.

Battle of Guam (1941)
–
The First Battle of Guam was an engagement during the Pacific War in World War II, and took place on 8 December 1941 on Guam in the Mariana Islands between Japan and the United States. The American garrison was defeated by Japanese forces, which resulted in an occupation until the Second Battle of Guam in 1944, Guam is the southernmost part of the

1.
Another illustration of the route Japanese forces followed during the invasion

2.
A Japanese illustration of the main landing on Guam by the 144th Infantry Regiment, South Seas Detachment. Painting by Kohei Ezaki.

Battle of Wake Island
–
The Battle of Wake Island began simultaneously with the attack on Pearl Harbor and ended on 23 December 1941, with the surrender of the American forces to the Empire of Japan. The island was held by the Japanese for the duration of the Pacific War, in January 1941, the United States Navy constructed a military base on the atoll. On 19 August, the f

Dutch East Indies campaign
–
The Dutch East Indies campaign of 1941–42 was the conquest of the Dutch East Indies by forces from the Empire of Japan in the early days of the Pacific Campaign of World War II. Forces from the Allies attempted unsuccessfully to defend the islands, the East Indies were targeted by the Japanese for their rich oil resources which would become a vital

1.
Japanese forces land on Java.

2.
The Japanese lines of advance in the Dutch East Indies, Sarawak and North Borneo (British), and Portuguese Timor.

New Guinea campaign
–
The New Guinea campaign of the Pacific War lasted from January 1942 until the end of the war in August 1945. The campaign resulted in a defeat and very heavy losses for Empire of Japan. As in most Pacific War campaigns, disease and starvation claimed more Japanese lives than enemy action, most Japanese troops never even came into contact with Allie

3.
Two dead Japanese soldiers in a water filled shell hole somewhere in New Guinea

4.
Australian soldiers resting in the Finisterre Ranges of New Guinea while en route to the front line

Battle of Singapore
–
Singapore was the major British military base in South-East Asia and was the keystone of British imperial interwar defence planning for South-East Asia as well as the South-West Pacific. The fighting in Singapore lasted from 8 to 15 February 1942 although this was preceded by two months of British resistance as Japanese forces advanced down the Mal

1.
Lieutenant-General Arthur Percival, led by a Japanese officer, walks under a flag of truce to negotiate the capitulation of Allied forces in Singapore, on 15 February 1942. It was the largest surrender of British-led forces in history.

2.
View of the blown up causeway, with the gap visible in the middle, which delayed the Japanese conquest for over a week to 8 February

Axis naval activity in Australian waters
–
Although Australia was remote from the main battlefronts, there was considerable Axis naval activity in Australian waters during the Second World War. A total of 54 German and Japanese warships and submarines entered Australian waters between 1940 and 1945 and attacked ships, ports and other targets, in addition, many Allied merchant ships were dam

Indian Ocean raid
–
The Indian Ocean raid was a naval sortie by the fast carrier strike force of the Imperial Japanese Navy from 31 March to 10 April 1942 against Allied shipping and bases in the Indian Ocean. It was an engagement of the Pacific campaign of World War II. The island of Ceylon was strategically important, since it commanded the Indian Ocean, thus it con

Solomon Islands campaign
–
The Solomon Islands campaign was a major campaign of the Pacific War of World War II. The campaign began with Japanese landings and occupation of areas in the British Solomon Islands and Bougainville, in the Territory of New Guinea. In a campaign of attrition fought on land, on sea, and in the air, the Allies retook some of the Solomon Islands, and

1.
Map of the Solomon Islands showing the Allied advance during 1943 and key air and naval bases.

Battle of the Coral Sea
–
The battle was the first action in which aircraft carriers engaged each other, as well as the first in which neither sides ships sighted or fired directly upon the other. Fletcher, to oppose the Japanese offensive, on 3–4 May, Japanese forces successfully invaded and occupied Tulagi, although several of their supporting warships were surprised and

1.
United States Navy aircraft carrier Lexington explodes on 8 May 1942, several hours after being damaged by a Japanese carrier air attack.

3.
Japanese advances in the Southwest Pacific from December 1941 to April 1942

4.
Shigeyoshi Inoue, commander of the 4th Fleet of the Imperial Japan Navy

American Theater (World War II)
–
The American Theater describes a series of mostly minor areas of operations during World War II. This was mainly due to both North and South Americas geographical separation from the theaters of conflict in Europe and Asia. Thus, any threat by the Axis Powers to invade the mainland United States or other areas was considered negligible, the best kn

1.
American servicemen inspecting a shell crater after the Japanese attack on Fort Stevens, Oregon

Marshalls-Gilberts raids
–
The Japanese garrisons were under the overall command of Vice Admiral Shigeyoshi Inoue, commander of the 4th Fleet. Japanese aircraft in the islands belonged to the IJNs 24th Air Flotilla under Rear Admiral Eiji Gotō, the U. S. warship forces were under the overall command of Vice Admiral William Halsey, Jr. The raids were carried out by two separa

1.
A bomb-laden SBD-2 Dauntless dive bomber prepares to take off from the U.S. carrier Enterprise during the raids on February 1.

Doolittle Raid
–
The raid was planned and led by Lieutenant Colonel James Jimmy Doolittle of the United States Army Air Forces. Sixteen B-25B Mitchell medium bombers were launched without fighter escort from the U. S. Navys aircraft carrier USS Hornet deep in the Western Pacific Ocean, each with a crew of five men. The plan called for them to military targets in Ja

3.
Lt. Col. Doolittle wires a Japanese medal to a bomb, for "return" to its originators.

4.
B-25 Mitchells aboard the USS Hornet during the raid

Operation RY
–
Operation RY was the Imperial Japanese plan to invade and occupy Nauru and Ocean islands in the south Pacific during the Pacific conflict of World War II. The operation was set to be executed in May 1942 immediately following Operation MO and before Operation MI. The primary reason for the operation was to exploit the islands supplies of phosphate,

1.
Map of the Coral Sea area with Nauru and Ocean (Banaba) islands in the top right corner.

Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign
–
They were the first steps of the drive across the central Pacific by the United States Pacific Fleet and Marine Corps. The purpose was to establish airfields and naval bases that would allow air, operations Galvanic and Kourbash were the code names for the Gilberts campaign that included the seizures of Tarawa and Makin. Operations Flintlock and Ca

1.
An SBD Dauntless flies patrol over the USS Washington and USS Lexington during the Gilbert and Marshall islands campaign.

Mariana and Palau Islands campaign
–
Beginning the offensive, United States Marine Corps and United States Army forces, with support from the United States Navy, executed landings on Saipan in June,1944. In response, the Imperial Japanese Navys combined fleet sortied to attack the U. S. Navy fleet supporting the landings, thereafter, U. S. forces executed landings on Guam and Tinian i

1.
A U.S. amphibious tractor loaded with Marines approaches Tinian during the U.S. landings on that island

Indian Ocean in World War II
–
Axis naval forces gave a high priority to disrupting Allied Indian Ocean trade. Initial anti-shipping measures of unrestricted submarine warfare and covert raiding ships expanded to include airstrikes by aircraft carriers, a Kriegsmarine Monsun Gruppe of U-boats operated from the eastern Indian Ocean after the Persian Corridor became an important m

2.
Atlantis was the first disguised commerce raider in the Indian Ocean.

3.
Galileo Galilei was one of eight Italian submarines operating out of Massawa, and is shown here being captured by the Royal Navy.

4.
HMS Hermes as a convoy escort during the first year of wartime patrols.

Franco-Thai War
–
The Franco-Thai War was fought between Thailand and France over certain areas of French Indochina. The German military occupation of a part of France made Frances hold on its overseas possessions, including Indochina. The colonial administration was now cut off from help and outside supplies. After the Japanese invasion of French Indochina in Septe

1.
French Indochina

2.
French troops used a handful of World War I-era Renault FT tanks during the conflict

4.
The Vickers Light Amphibious Tank saw service in the Thaï (Siamese) army

Japanese conquest of Burma
–
The Japanese conquest of Burma was the opening chapter of the Burma Campaign in the South-East Asian Theatre of World War II, which took place over four years from 1942 to 1945. Before the Second World War broke out, Burma was part of the British Empire, initially governed as part of British India, Burma was formed into a separate colony under the

1.
Troops of Japanese Fifteenth Army on the border of Burma

2.
Electrical equipment and oil installations at Yenanguang being destroyed as part of the "scorched earth" policy, in the face of the Japanese advance

3.
Japanese advance and Allied retreat

Burma Campaign 1944
–
The fighting in the Burma Campaign in 1944 was among the most severe in the South-East Asian Theatre of World War II. British Commonwealth land forces were primarily from the United Kingdom, British India. The Japanese forestalled them by launching their own offensive into India, and this handicapped the Japanese attempts to defend Burma against re

1.
A C-47 transport aircraft drops supplies by parachute to Allied troops in action against Japanese forces; a common event during the fighting in Burma and India during 1944.

2.
Stilwell's operations in North Burma

3.
The Salween Campaign, 1944

4.
Imphal and Kohima Campaign

Japanese coup de main in French Indochina
–
The Japanese coup détat in French Indochina, known as Meigo Sakusen, was a Japanese operation that took place on 9 March 1945 towards the end of World War II. With Japanese forces losing the war and the threat of an Allied invasion of Indochina imminent, despite the French having anticipated an attack, the Japanese struck in a military campaign att

Battle of the Malacca Strait
–
Haguro had been operating as a supply ship for Japanese garrisons in the Dutch East Indies and the Bay of Bengal since 1 May 1945. On 9 May, Haguro left Singapore, escorted by the destroyer Kamikaze, to re-supply the Port Blair garrison on the Andaman Islands, the Royal Navy was alerted to this by a decrypted Japanese naval signal, subsequently con

2.
Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten signs the acceptance of surrender for Great Britain. 12 September 1945

3.
Ships of the occupation convoy en route to Singapore, August 1945

4.
Cheering schoolchildren welcome the return of the British Army on 5 September 1945

Operation Zipper

1.
Rear Admiral Jisaku Uozumi signs the surrender document aboard the HMS Nelson. 2 September 1945. He fainted shortly afterwards and was rushed to hospital. Note the Distinguished Service Cross ribbon on Uozumi's uniform, which he had earned as Britain's ally in World War I.

Battle of Timor

1.
An Australian commando, possibly Sergeant Bill Tomasetti of the 2/2nd Independent Company, in typical mountain terrain on Timor, on 12 December 1942. (Photograph by Damien Parer.)

3.
The East Timorese village of Mindelo (Turiscai) is burnt to the ground by Australian guerillas to prevent its use as a Japanese base, 12 December 1942

4.
Signaller Keith Richards, Corporal John Donovan and Sergeant Frank Press (left to right), from the Australian 2/2nd Independent Company, using a radio on a mountain top in Japanese-occupied Timor, in about November 1942. (Photograph by Damien Parer.)

Battle for Australia

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An Australian propaganda poster released in 1942. The poster was criticised for being alarmist when it was released and was banned by the Queensland government.

Borneo campaign (1945)

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A map showing the progress of the Borneo Campaign

Bombardment of Ellwood

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The Ellwood Oil Field and the location of the Japanese attack.

Aleutian Islands Campaign

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American troops hauling supplies on Attu in May 1943 through Jarmin pass. Their vehicles could not move across the island's rugged terrain.

2.
The Navy radio station at Dutch Harbor burning after the Japanese Attack, 4 June 1942

3.
US military propaganda poster from 1942/43 for Thirteenth Naval District, United States Navy, showing a rat representing Japan, approaching a mousetrap labeled "Army - Navy - Civilian", on a background map of the Alaska Territory, referred to as future "Death-Trap For The Jap ".

4.
Rear Admiral Boris Dmitrievich Popov, commander of the 5th Independent Brigade of Soviet Navy Ships at Cold Bay, cuts a cake while his counterpart, Captain William Stewart Maxwell (right), commanding officer of U.S. Navy Detachment 3294 at Cold Bay and overall commander of Project Hula, and members of their staffs look on during a party in Popov‍ '​s honor on Memorial Day, 30 May 1945, probably at Dutch Harbor.

1.
The official seal of the Commander of the United States Pacific Fleet.

Southeast Asia

1.
A golden vestment similar to those worn by the Hindu Brahmin Caste, found in Butuan (Philippines) Archeological Digs. This artefact shows the influence of Indian culture in Southeast Asia, also through trade.

3.
Mitsubishi A6M Zeros of 22nd Air Flotilla at RAF Kota Bharu after its capture from Allied forces, c. 1942.

4.
Lockheed Hudson aircraft of No. 1 Squadron under assembly at RAAF Station Richmond. The Hudson in the right foreground was flown by Flt Lt John Lockwood, who led the first Allied attack against the Japanese. He and his wingmen heavily damaged the Japanese freighter, Awazisan Maru, causing its abandonment.

1.
President Roosevelt, wearing a black armband, signs the Declaration of War against Japan on December 8, 1941

LIST OF IMAGES

1.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation

Geographic coordinate system
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Longitude lines are perpendicular and latitude lines are parallel to the equator.

2.
Asiatic-Pacific Theater
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The Asiatic-Pacific Theater, was the area of operations of U. S. forces during World War II in the Pacific War during 1941-45. From mid-1942 until the end of the war in 1945, there were two U. S. operational commands in the Pacific. The Pacific Ocean Areas, divided into the Central Pacific Area, the North Pacific Area, the South West Pacific Area, including New Guinea, Philippines, Borneo, and the Dutch East Indies, was commanded by General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Allied Commander South West Pacific Area. During 1945, the United States added the U. S. Strategic Air Forces in the Pacific, commanded by General Carl Spaatz. Because of the roles of the United States Army and the United States Navy in conducting war in the Pacific Theater. There was no command, rather, the Asiatic-Pacific Theater was divided into the SWPA, the POA. The Official Chronology of the U. S. Navy in World War II, in the Service of the Emperor, Essays on the Imperial Japanese Army. Kafka, Roger, Pepperburg, Roy L. Warships of the World, the Campaigns of the Pacific War. A History of Us, War, Peace and all that Jazz, joint Operational Warfare, Theory and Practice. Newport, Rhode Island, United States Naval War College, the Battle for Leyte,1944, Allied and Japanese Plans, Preparations, and Execution

3.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan

4.
Battleship Row
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Battleship Row was the grouping of eight U. S. battleships in port at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, when the Japanese attacked on 7 December 1941. These ships bore the brunt of the Japanese assault and they were moored next to Ford Island when the attack commenced. The ships were Arizona, California, Maryland, Nevada, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, a repair ship, Vestal, was also present, moored next to Arizona. Arizona, California, Oklahoma, and West Virginia were sunk during the attack, Arizona suffered the most serious damage and loss of life, an explosion in a forward magazine breaking the hull in two. Of the other four, West Virginia and to a lesser degree Nevada had serious damage, Pennsylvania was in dry dock, making attack difficult, and as a result was relatively undamaged. Battleship Row was not visible from Hickam Field because of the black smoke. Following the attack, operations immediately commenced to refloat and repair the damaged ships, the first to be completed was Nevada on April 19,1942. By the end of the war, all except Arizona and Oklahoma had returned to service, each of the six surviving battleships saw service in the Pacific island hopping campaign. Nevada also served in the Atlantic and supported the Invasion of Normandy, all six were decommissioned soon after the war was over. Nevada and Pennsylvania were expended in atomic tests in the Pacific. The rest were scrapped in the late 1950s, Oklahoma was eventually refloated but not repaired, and capsized and sank while being towed back to the mainland for scrapping. Arizonas hulk remains a memorial, one of the most popular tourist attractions on the island, utah was in port at Pearl Harbor, but was not moored with the rest of the battleships, as she had since been converted to a target ship. However, she was sunk within a few minutes of the battle. Arizona, hit by a bomb, exploded, total loss. Oklahoma, hit by five torpedoes, capsized, total loss, refloated November 1943, capsized and lost while under tow to the mainland May 1947. West Virginia, hit by two bombs, seven torpedoes, sunk, returned to service July 1944, California, hit by two bombs, two torpedoes, sunk, returned to service January 1944. Nevada, hit by six bombs, one torpedo, beached, returned to service October 1942, Tennessee, hit by two bombs, returned to service February 1942. Maryland, hit by two bombs, returned to service February 1942, Pennsylvania, in drydock with Cassin and Downes, hit by one bomb, debris from USS Cassin, remained in service

Battleship Row
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The formation of ships in Battleship Row. (USS Vestal not shown)
Battleship Row
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Japanese planes attacking Battleship Row, as seen from the southwest. Ford Island is in the center of the picture, and Battleship row is behind the island
Battleship Row

5.
USS West Virginia (BB-48)
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USS West Virginia, a Colorado-class battleship, was the second United States Navy ship named in honor of the countrys 35th state. She was laid down on 12 April 1920 at Newport News, Virginia, launched on 19 November 1921 and her first captain was Thomas J. Senn. After her shakedown and crew training were finished, she was overhauled at Hampton Roads, after her repairs she participated in exercises and engineering and gunnery courses, winning four medals in the latter. She participated in fleet tactical development operations until 1939. In 1940 she was transferred to Pearl Harbor to guard against potential Japanese attack, on 17 May 1942, she was salvaged from the seabed by draining the water from her hull. After repairs in Pearl Harbor, she sailed to the Puget Sound Navy Yard, there she received an extensive refit, including the replacement of her 5-inch /25 caliber anti-aircraft guns and single-purpose 5-inch /51 caliber guns with 5-inch /38 caliber anti-aircraft guns. She left Puget Sound in July 1944 for Leyte Gulf, at the end of the Pacific War she entered Tokyo Bay for the Japanese surrender and became part of Operation Magic Carpet, making three runs to Hawaii to transport veterans home. She was deactivated on 9 January 1947 and laid up at Bremerton, Washington, West Virginia was 624 feet long overall, had a beam of 97.3 ft and a draft of 30.5 ft. She displaced 32,100 long tons as designed, and up to 33,060 long tons at full load. The ship was powered by a four-shaft turbo-electric drive rated at 28,900 shaft horsepower and eight Babcock & Wilcox boilers and she had a range of 8,000 nautical miles at 10 knots and a crew of 1,407 officers and enlisted men when commissioned. She was armed with a battery of eight 16-inch /45 caliber Mark 1 guns in four twin gun turrets on the centerline. The secondary battery consisted of sixteen 5-inch /51 caliber guns, the anti-aircraft defense consisted of four 3-inch /23 caliber guns, which were soon replaced with four 5-inch/25 caliber guns. The secondary battery of 5-inch/51 caliber guns and the battery of 5-inch/25 caliber guns were replaced with 5-inch/38 caliber guns. Standard for capital ships of the period, she carried two 21-inch torpedo tubes in deck-mounted torpedo launchers which were removed in a later overhaul, a CXAM-1 Radar was installed in 1940. West Virginias main armored belt was 13.5 inches thick over the magazines and the machinery spaces, the main-battery gun turrets had 18-inch-thick faces, and the supporting barbettes had 13 inches of armor plating on their exposed sides. Armor 3.5 inches thick protected the decks, and the tower had 11. 5-inch-thick sides. West Virginias keel was laid down at Newport News, Virginia on 12 April 1920 by the Newport News Shipbuilding and she was launched on 19 November 1921 and commissioned on 1 December 1923. Her first captain was Thomas J. Senn, while her construction was sponsored by Alice Wright Mann, daughter of Isaac T. Mann, as she was one of the newest American super-dreadnoughts, she incorporated the latest features in naval design

USS West Virginia (BB-48)
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USS West Virginia in San Francisco Bay, c. 1934
USS West Virginia (BB-48)
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Sailors in a motor launch rescue a man overboard alongside the burning West Virginia during, or shortly after, the Japanese air raid on Pearl Harbor.
USS West Virginia (BB-48)
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USS Artisan (AFDB-1), a floating drydock, held West Virginia for repairs.

6.
USS Neosho (AO-23)
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USS Neosho was a Cimarron-class fleet oiler serving with the United States Navy, the second ship to be named for the Neosho River in Kansas and Oklahoma. After surviving the Attack on Pearl Harbor, Neosho operated in the South Pacific, conversion at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard was completed on 7 July 1941, Neosho immediately began the vital task of ferrying aviation fuel from west coast ports to Pearl Harbor. On such a mission she arrived in Pearl Harbor on 6 December, discharged a cargo to Naval Air Station Ford Island. Her guns fired throughout the attack, splashing one enemy plane, three of her men were wounded by a strafing attacker. For the next five months, Neosho sailed with the carriers or independently, since escort ships—now few and far between—could not always be spared to guard even so precious a ship. Late in April, as the Japanese threatened a southward move against Australia and New Zealand by attempting to advance their bases in the Southwest Pacific, Neosho joined Task Force 17. At all costs, the sea lanes to the dominions had to be kept open, the next day at 1000, Japanese search planes spotted the two ships and misidentified them as a carrier and her escort. 78 aircraft from Shōkaku and Zuikaku soon arrived and began searching in vain for the carrier force. Eventually, they gave up and returned to sink Sims and leave Neosho—victim of seven direct hits and she had shot down at least three of the attackers. One of her crewmen, Oscar V. Peterson, was awarded the Medal of Honor for his efforts to save the ship in spite of his severe injuries suffered in the attack. Superb seamanship and skilled damage control work kept Neosho afloat for the four days. The sorely stricken ship was first located by a RAAF aircraft, at 13,00 on 11 May, the destroyer Henley arrived, rescued the 123 survivors and sunk by gunfire the ship they had so valiantly kept afloat against impossible odds. With Henley came word that the American fleet had succeeded in turning the Japanese back, Neosho received two battle stars for her service. This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, the entry can be found here. NEOSHO with Japanese Aircraft on May 7,1942, Subsequent Loss of U. S. S, gray Steel and Black Oil, Fast Tankers and Replenishment at Sea in the U. S. Navy, 1912–1995. Battle of the Coral Sea - Combat Narratives, the Ship That Wouldnt Die, The Saga of the USS Neosho- A World War II Story of Courage and Survival at Sea

7.
Pearl Harbor
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Pearl Harbor is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base and it is also the headquarters of the United States Pacific Fleet. The U. S. government first obtained exclusive use of the inlet, the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Empire of Japan on December 7,1941, was the immediate cause of the United States entry into World War II. Pearl Harbor was originally a shallow embayment called Wai Momi or Puʻuloa by the Hawaiians. Puʻuloa was regarded as the home of the goddess, Kaʻahupahau. Making due allowance for legendary amplification, the estuary already had an outlet for its waters where the present gap is, during the early 19th century, Pearl Harbor was not used for large ships due to its shallow entrance. The interest of United States in the Hawaiian Islands grew as a result of its whaling, shipping and trading activity in the Pacific. As early as 1820, an Agent of the United States for Commerce and these commercial ties to the American continent were accompanied by the work of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. American missionaries and their families became a part of the Hawaiian political body. Throughout the 1820s and 1830s, many American warships visited Honolulu, in most cases, the commanding officers carried letters from the U. S. Government giving advice on governmental affairs and of the relations of the island nation with foreign powers. In 1841, the newspaper Polynesian, printed in Honolulu, advocated that the U. S. establish a base in Hawaii for protection of American citizens engaged in the whaling industry. The British Hawaiian Minister of Foreign Affairs Robert Crichton Wyllie, remarked in 1840 that and my opinion is that the tide of events rushes on to annexation to the United States. In 1865, the North Pacific Squadron was formed to embrace the western coast, lackawanna in the following year was assigned to cruise among the islands, a locality of great and increasing interest and importance. This vessel surveyed the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands toward Japan, as a result, the United States claimed Midway Island. The Secretary of the Navy was able to write in his report of 1868. This increased activity caused the permanent assignment of at least one warship to Hawaiian waters and it also praised Midway Island as possessing a harbor surpassing Honolulus. In the following year, Congress approved an appropriation of $50,000 on March 1,1869, after 1868, when the Commander of the Pacific Fleet visited the islands to look after American interests, naval officers played an important role in internal affairs. They served as arbitrators in disputes, negotiators of trade agreements and defenders of law

Pearl Harbor
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Aerial view of Pearl Harbor, Ford Island in center. The Arizona memorial is the small white dot on the left side above Ford Island
Pearl Harbor
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Pearl Harbor in the 1880s.
Pearl Harbor
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Astronaut photograph of Pearl Harbor from October 2009

8.
Hawaii Territory
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The Hawaii Admission Act specified that the State of Hawaii would not include Palmyra Atoll, The Midway Islands, Johnston Atoll, Sand Island, or Kingman Reef. The U. S. Congress passed the Newlands Resolution which annexed the Republic of Hawaii to the United States, Hawaiis territorial history includes a period from 1941 to 1944—during World War II—when the islands were placed under martial law. Civilian government was dissolved and a governor was appointed. Thurston actively lobbied Congress while the former monarchy lobbied Democrats to protest, First annexation proceedings began when Democrat Grover Cleveland took office. Cleveland was an anti-imperialist and was strongly against annexation and he withdrew the annexation treaty from consideration, mounted an inquiry, and recommended the restoration of Liliʻuokalani as queen. The provisional government convened a convention to establish the Republic of Hawaii. Thurston was urged to become the nations first president but he was worried his brazen personality would damage the cause of annexation, Dole, former Supreme Court Justice and friend of Queen Liliʻuokalani, was elected as the first and only president of the new regime. Hawaiis strategic location to support the Spanish–American War in the Philippines made it important to American interests. On July 4,1898, the United States Congress passed the Newlands Resolution and it was signed into law by President McKinley on July 7,1898, and came into effect on August 12,1898. Former President Sanford B. Dole was appointed Hawaiis first territorial governor, the Newlands Resolution established a five-member commission to study which laws were needed in the newly organized Territory of Hawaii. The commission included, Territorial Governor Sanford B, Dole, Senators Shelby M. Cullom and John T. Morgan, Representative Robert R. Hitt and former Hawaii Chief Justice and later succeeding Territorial Governor Walter F. Frear. The commissions final report was submitted to Congress for a debate which lasted over a year, the Organic Act established the Office of the Territorial Governor, an office appointed by the sitting American president and was usually from his own political party. The territorial governor served at the pleasure of the President of the United States and nominated by him and confirmed by the Senate, Representative in the U. S. House of Representatives Representation in the U. S. His transports encouraged him to purchase passenger steamships that would carry tourists hoping to vacation in Hawaii from the mainland United States, matsons fleet included the SS Wilhelmina, rivaling the best passenger ships serving traditional Atlantic routes. With the boom in interest of Hawaiian vacations by Americas wealthiest families in the late 1920s, Matson added the SS Mariposa, SS Monterey, Matson Navigation Company operated two resort hotels in Honolulu near royal grounds. The first hotel on Waikīkī was the Moana Hotel which opened in 1901, as the first hotel in Waikīkī, the Moana Hotel was nicknamed the First Lady of Waikīkī. The hotel gained international attention in 1920 when Edward, Prince of Wales and future King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom, in 1927, the luxurious Royal Hawaiian Hotel, informally called the Pink Palace of the Pacific, opened for business. It was the preferred Hawaii residence of President Franklin D. Roosevelt when he visited Hawaii during World War II, with annexation, the United States saw Hawaii as its most strategic military asset

Hawaii Territory
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On August 12, 1898, the flag of the Kingdom of Hawaii over ʻIolani Palace was lowered and the United States flag raised to signify annexation.
Hawaii Territory
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Flag
Hawaii Territory
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Cartoon depiction of the United States, its territories, and US controlled regions as a classroom with belligerent Philippines, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and Cuba
Hawaii Territory
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Sanford B. Dole was sworn in as the first territorial governor on the steps of ʻ Iolani Palace as American businessmen and plantation owners lauded victory against the monarchy.

9.
Consequences of the attack on Pearl Harbor
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The results of the attack on Pearl Harbor were many and significant. On December 7,1941, the Japanese launched an attack on the U. S. naval base at Pearl Harbor. After two hours of bombing,18 U. S. ships were sunk or damaged,188 U. S. aircraft were destroyed, the day after the attack, President Franklin D. Roosevelt addressed a joint session of the 77th United States Congress. Roosevelt called December 7 a date which will live in infamy. S. government, pacifist Representative Jeannette Rankin, a Republican from Montana, cast the only dissenting vote. Roosevelt signed the declaration of war later the same day, Japanese Americans from the West Coast were sent to internment camps for the duration of the war. The attack on Pearl Harbor immediately galvanized a divided nation into action, public opinion had been moving towards support for entering the war during 1941, but considerable opposition remained until the attack. Overnight, Americans united against the Empire of Japan in response to calls to Remember Pearl Harbor, American solidarity in the war effort probably made possible the unconditional surrender position later taken by the Allied Powers. U. S. industrial and military capacity, once mobilized, was able to pour overwhelming resources into both the Pacific and Atlantic theaters. Others, such as Clay Blair, Jr. and Mark Parillo believe Japanese trade protection was so incompetent that American submarines alone might have strangled Japan into defeat. In February 1942, Roosevelt signed United States Executive Order 9066, propaganda made repeated use of the attack, because its effect was enormous and impossible to counter. Became the watchwords of the war, the American government understated the damage inflicted, in hopes of preventing the Japanese from learning it, but the Japanese had, through surveillance, a good estimate. On December 8,1941, the Empire of Japan declared war on the United States, the Japanese document discussed world peace and the disruptive actions of the United States and the United Kingdom. The document claimed all avenues for averting war had been exhausted by the Government of Japan, although the Imperial Japanese government had made some effort to prepare their population for war via anti-U. S. Propaganda, it appears most Japanese were surprised, apprehensive, nevertheless, the people at home and overseas thereafter generally accepted their governments account of the attack and supported the war effort until their nations surrender in 1945. Japans national leadership at the time appeared to have believed war between the U. S. and Japan had long been inevitable. In any case, Japanese-American relationships had already significantly deteriorated since Japans invasion of China beginning in the early 1930s, of which the United States strongly disapproved. In 1942, Saburō Kurusu, former Japanese ambassador to the United States and he said war had been a response to Washingtons longstanding aggression toward Japan. In light of Japans dependence on imported oil, the trade embargoes were especially significant and these pressures directly influenced Japan to go into alliance with Germany and Italy through the Tripartite Pact

Consequences of the attack on Pearl Harbor
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Japanese Prime Minister at the time of the attack, Hideki Tojo.
Consequences of the attack on Pearl Harbor
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President Franklin D. Roosevelt signing the Declaration of War against Japan on the day following the attack
Consequences of the attack on Pearl Harbor
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Japanese depiction of nine midget submarine crewmembers lost during the attack, excluding the POW, Kazuo Sakamaki.
Consequences of the attack on Pearl Harbor
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Hitler declares war against the United States in the Reichstag, 11 December 1941

10.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci

11.
Empire of Japan
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The Empire of Japan was the historical Japanese nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 to the enactment of the 1947 constitution of modern Japan. Imperial Japans rapid industrialization and militarization under the slogan Fukoku Kyōhei led to its emergence as a world power, after several large-scale military successes during the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Pacific War, the Empire also gained notoriety for its war crimes against the peoples it conquered. A period of occupation by the Allies followed the surrender, Occupation and reconstruction continued well into the 1950s, eventually forming the current nation-state whose full title is the State of Japan or simply rendered Japan in English. The historical state is referred to as the Empire of Japan or the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan in English. In Japanese it is referred to as Dai Nippon Teikoku, which translates to Greater Japanese Empire and this is analogous to Großdeutsches Reich, a term that translates to Greater German Empire in English and Dai Doitsu Teikoku in Japanese. This meaning is significant in terms of geography, encompassing Japan, due to its name in kanji characters and its flag, it was also given the exonym Empire of the Sun. After two centuries, the policy, or Sakoku, under the shoguns of the Edo period came to an end when the country was forced open to trade by the Convention of Kanagawa in 1854. The following years saw increased trade and interaction, commercial treaties between the Tokugawa shogunate and Western countries were signed. In large part due to the terms of these Unequal Treaties, the Shogunate soon faced internal hostility, which materialized into a radical, xenophobic movement. In March 1863, the Emperor issued the order to expel barbarians, although the Shogunate had no intention of enforcing the order, it nevertheless inspired attacks against the Shogunate itself and against foreigners in Japan. The Namamugi Incident during 1862 led to the murder of an Englishman, Charles Lennox Richardson, the British demanded reparations but were denied. While attempting to exact payment, the Royal Navy was fired on from coastal batteries near the town of Kagoshima and they responded by bombarding the port of Kagoshima in 1863. For Richardsons death, the Tokugawa government agreed to pay an indemnity, shelling of foreign shipping in Shimonoseki and attacks against foreign property led to the Bombardment of Shimonoseki by a multinational force in 1864. The Chōshū clan also launched the coup known as the Kinmon incident. The Satsuma-Chōshū alliance was established in 1866 to combine their efforts to overthrow the Tokugawa bakufu, in early 1867, Emperor Kōmei died of smallpox and was replaced by his son, Crown Prince Mutsuhito. On November 9,1867, Tokugawa Yoshinobu resigned from his post and authorities to the Emperor, however, while Yoshinobus resignation had created a nominal void at the highest level of government, his apparatus of state continued to exist. On January 3,1868, Satsuma-Chōshū forces seized the palace in Kyoto. On January 17,1868, Yoshinobu declared that he would not be bound by the proclamation of the Restoration, on January 24, Yoshinobu decided to prepare an attack on Kyoto, occupied by Satsuma and Chōshū forces

12.
United States Navy
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The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U. S. Navy is the largest, most capable navy in the world, the U. S. Navy has the worlds largest aircraft carrier fleet, with ten in service, two in the reserve fleet, and three new carriers under construction. The service has 323,792 personnel on duty and 108,515 in the Navy Reserve. It has 274 deployable combat vessels and more than 3,700 operational aircraft as of October 2016, the U. S. Navy traces its origins to the Continental Navy, which was established during the American Revolutionary War and was effectively disbanded as a separate entity shortly thereafter. It played a role in the American Civil War by blockading the Confederacy. It played the role in the World War II defeat of Imperial Japan. The 21st century U. S. Navy maintains a global presence, deploying in strength in such areas as the Western Pacific, the Mediterranean. The Navy is administratively managed by the Department of the Navy, the Department of the Navy is itself a division of the Department of Defense, which is headed by the Secretary of Defense. The Chief of Naval Operations is an admiral and the senior naval officer of the Department of the Navy. The CNO may not be the highest ranking officer in the armed forces if the Chairman or the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The mission of the Navy is to maintain, train and equip combat-ready Naval forces capable of winning wars, deterring aggression, the United States Navy is a seaborne branch of the military of the United States. The Navys three primary areas of responsibility, The preparation of naval forces necessary for the prosecution of war. The development of aircraft, weapons, tactics, technique, organization, U. S. Navy training manuals state that the mission of the U. S. Armed Forces is to prepare and conduct prompt and sustained combat operations in support of the national interest, as part of that establishment, the U. S. Navys functions comprise sea control, power projection and nuclear deterrence, in addition to sealift duties. It follows then as certain as that night succeeds the day, that without a decisive naval force we can do nothing definitive, the Navy was rooted in the colonial seafaring tradition, which produced a large community of sailors, captains, and shipbuilders. In the early stages of the American Revolutionary War, Massachusetts had its own Massachusetts Naval Militia, the establishment of a national navy was an issue of debate among the members of the Second Continental Congress. Supporters argued that a navy would protect shipping, defend the coast, detractors countered that challenging the British Royal Navy, then the worlds preeminent naval power, was a foolish undertaking. Commander in Chief George Washington resolved the debate when he commissioned the ocean-going schooner USS Hannah to interdict British merchant ships, and reported the captures to the Congress

13.
Husband E. Kimmel
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Husband Edward Kimmel, nicknamed Kim, was a four-star admiral in the United States Navy. At the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, he was Commander-in-chief of the U. S and he was removed from command after the December 1941 attack and reduced to the two-star rank of rear admiral. He retired from the Navy in early 1942 and he married Dorothy Kinkaid, sister of Admiral Thomas C. Kinkaid, with whom he had three sons, Manning, Thomas K. Kimmel and Edward R. Kimmel, Kimmel graduated in 1904 from the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. From 1906 to 1907 he served on battleships in the Caribbean. In 1907 he was assigned to the USS Georgia during its participation in the cruise of the Great White Fleet. Kimmel then served in the U. S. occupation of Veracruz, Mexico, in 1915 he was appointed as an aide to Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt. During World War One Kimmel served as a gunnery officer in the US Sixth Battle Squadron. From 1926 to 1937 Kimmel held a number of positions in the Navy Department as well as the commands of a Destroyer squadron, in 1937 he was promoted to the flag rank of rear admiral. In this capacity he commanded Cruiser Division Seven on a cruise to South America. In January 1941 Kimmel began duties as Commander-in-Chief of the United States Pacific Fleet with a rank of admiral. In this role he earned a reputation for attention to detail, after Admiral James O. Richardson was removed as Commander in Chief, U. S. Fleet and Pacific Fleet, in February 1941, Kimmel assumed command with the rank of admiral. The base for the fleet had moved from its traditional home at San Diego, California. Japans attack on Pearl Harbor occurred on December 7,1941, edwin T. Layton related that during the attack, Kimmel stood by the window of his office at the submarine base, his jaw set in stony anguish. As he watched the disaster across the harbor unfold with terrible fury and it brushed the admiral before it clanged to the floor. It cut his white jacket and raised a welt on his chest and it would have been merciful had it killed me, Kimmel murmured to his communications officer, Commander Maurice Germany Curts. Kimmel was relieved of his ten days after the attack

Husband E. Kimmel
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Admiral Husband E. Kimmel

14.
Walter Short
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Short was born in 1880 in Fillmore, Illinois. The son of a doctor, he graduated from the University of Illinois in 1901 and he was commissioned a second lieutenant on March 13,1902, and assigned duty at the Presidio of San Francisco. He served in the Philippines and later Alaska, and took part in the expedition into Mexico with the 16th Infantry Regiment in 1916, during World War I, he served on the general staff of the 1st Division and as assistant chief of staff for the 3rd Army. After the war, Short became a member of the War Department General staff and he then attended the Army War College and after graduation served as a staff school instructor. Short commanded the 1st Division at Fort Hamilton, New York, from 1938 to 1940, before commanding the 4th Army Corps, General George Marshall appointed him to the Hawaiian command on February 8,1941. He earned the Distinguished Service Medal and was considered to have had a career at that time. On December 17,1941, General Short was removed from command of the U. S. Armys Hawaiian Department as a result of the Japanese attack on the Hawaiian Islands. Short was ordered back to Washington, D. C. by Army Chief of Staff George C. Marshall. In disgrace, he was reduced in rank from his rank of lieutenant general to his permanent rank of major general. In 1942 after he retired from the Army, he headed the department at a Ford Motor Company plant in Dallas, Texas. He retired in 1946 and died in 1949 in Dallas of chronic heart ailment, the Roberts Commission, headed by U. S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Owen J. Roberts, was formed soon after the attack on the Hawaiian Islands. General Short, along with Navy Commander in Chief, U. S, Fleet and Pacific Fleet, Admiral Husband E. Kimmel, was accused of being unprepared and charged with dereliction of duty. The report charged that he and Kimmel did not take seriously enough an earlier war warning, knox wrote, If war eventuates with Japan, it is believed easily possible that hostilities would be initiated by a surprise attack upon the fleet or the naval base at Pearl Harbor. Knoxs letter stated the defenses against all but the first two were then satisfactory, described the character of an air attack and urged the Army to prepare for such an attack. It concluded with recommendations for the revision of joint defense plans with special emphasis on the coordination of Army and it also urged the conduct of joint exercises to train the forces to meet such raids. Admiral Kimmel and General Short received copies of letters at about the time they assumed their commands. The Roberts Commission was not a court martial proceeding or a judicial tribunal, rather, the investigations were for fact-finding. There is generally no right to due process, in the sense of a right to counsel, Short testified on his own behalf before Congress about the 1941 attack in 1946

Walter Short
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Major General Walter C. Short
Walter Short
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Short as a lieutenant general
Walter Short
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Short after promotion to lieutenant general

15.
Isoroku Yamamoto
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Isoroku Yamamoto was a Japanese Marshal Admiral of the Navy and the commander-in-chief of the Combined Fleet during World War II until his death. Yamamoto held several important posts in the Imperial Japanese Navy, and undertook many of its changes and reorganizations and he was the commander-in-chief during the decisive early years of the Pacific War, so was responsible for major battles such as Pearl Harbor and Midway. He died when American code breakers identified his flight plans and his plane was shot down and his death was a major blow to Japanese military morale during World War II. Yamamoto was born Isoroku Takano in Nagaoka, Niigata and his father was Sadayoshi Takano, an intermediate-rank samurai of the Nagaoka Domain. Isoroku is an old Japanese term meaning 56, the referred to his fathers age at Isorokus birth. In 1916, Isoroku was adopted into the Yamamoto family and took the Yamamoto name and it was a common practice for samurai families lacking sons to adopt suitable young men in this fashion to carry on the family name, the rank and the income that comes with it. In 1918 Isoroku married Reiko Mihashi, with whom he had two sons and two daughters, after graduating from the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy in 1904, Yamamoto served on the armored cruiser Nisshin during the Russo-Japanese War. He was wounded at the Battle of Tsushima, losing two fingers on his hand, as the cruiser was hit repeatedly by the Russian battle line. He returned to the Naval Staff College in 1914, emerging as a lieutenant commander in 1916, Yamamoto was part of the Japanese Navy establishment, who were rivals of the more aggressive army establishment, especially the officers of the Kwantung Army. This stance led him to oppose the invasion of China and he also opposed war against the United States partly because of his studies at Harvard University and his two postings as a naval attaché in Washington, D. C. where he learned to speak fluent English. Yamamoto traveled extensively in the United States during his tour of duty there and he was promoted to captain in 1923. On February 13,1924, at the rank of captain, later that year, he changed his specialty from gunnery to naval aviation. His first command was the cruiser Isuzu in 1928, followed by the aircraft carrier Akagi, Yamamoto was a strong proponent of naval aviation, and served as head of the Aeronautics Department before accepting a post as commander of the First Carrier Division. Yamamoto opposed the invasion of Manchuria in 1931, the subsequent land war with China, as Deputy Navy Minister, he apologized to United States Ambassador Joseph C. Grew for the bombing of the gunboat USS Panay in December 1937 and these issues made him a target of assassination threats by pro-war militarists. Yamamoto received a stream of hate mail and death threats from Japanese nationalists. His reaction to the prospect of death by assassination was passive, the admiral wrote, To die for Emperor and Nation is the highest hope of a military man. After a brave hard fight the blossoms are scattered on the fighting field, but if a person wants to take a life instead, still the fighting man will go to eternity for Emperor and country

16.
Mitsuo Fuchida
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Mitsuo Fuchida was a Japanese captain in the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service and a bomber aviator in the Japanese navy before and during World War II. He is perhaps best known for leading the first air attacks on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. Working under the fleet commander, Vice Admiral Chūichi Nagumo. After the war ended, Fuchida became a Christian evangelist and traveled through the United States and he settled permanently in the United States but never became a U. S. citizen. Mitsuo Fuchida was born in what is now part of Katsuragi, Nara Prefecture, Japan to Yazo and he entered the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy at Etajima, Hiroshima, in 1921, where he befriended classmate Minoru Genda and discovered an interest in flying. He graduated as a midshipman on 24 July 1924, and was promoted to ensign on 1 December 1925 and he was promoted to lieutenant on 1 December 1930. Specializing in horizontal bombing, Fuchida was made an instructor in that technique in 1936, Fuchida joined the aircraft carrier Akagi in 1939 as the commander of the air group. Fuchida was made commander in October 1941, at 06,00, the first wave of 183 dive bombers, torpedo bombers, horizontal bombers and fighters took off from carriers 250 mi north of Oahu and headed for the U. S. At 07,40 Hawaiian Standard Time, Mitsuo Fuchida, who by this time had achieved the rank of commander, the first attack wave then banked west and flew along the northwest coast. Passing Waimea Bay at 07,49, Fuchida instructed his radio operator, Petty Officer 1st Class Norinobu Mizuki, Fuchida thinking Lt Cmdr Shigeru Itayas Zeros, missed the signal, fired a second flare. Lt Cmdr Kakuichi Takahashi, overall leader of the first wave dive bombers, thinking the dive bombers were to attack, he led his dive bombers into immediate attack position. Lt Cmdr Shigeharu Murata, overall leader of the torpedo bombers and he knew there was a misunderstanding which could not be rectified, so he led his torpedo bombers into attack positions. At 07,53, Fuchida ordered Mizuki to send the code words Tora, back to the carrier Akagi, the flagship of 1st Air Fleet. The message meant that complete surprise had been achieved, due to favorable atmospheric conditions, the transmission of the Tora. As the first wave returned to the carriers, Fuchida remained over the target to assess damage and he returned to his carrier only after the second wave had completed its mission. With great pride, he announced that the U. S. battleship fleet had been destroyed, Fuchida inspected his craft and found 21 large flak holes, the main control wires were barely holding together. The successful attack made Fuchida a national hero who was granted an audience with Emperor Hirohito. On 19 February 1942, Fuchida led the first of two waves of 188 aircraft in an air raid on Darwin, Australia

17.
United States Coast Guard
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The United States Coast Guard is a branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the countrys seven uniformed services. This has happened twice, in 1917, during World War I, created by Congress on 4 August 1790 at the request of Alexander Hamilton as the Revenue Marine, it is the oldest continuous seagoing service of the United States. As Secretary of the Treasury, Hamilton headed the Revenue Marine, by the 1860s, the service was known as the U. S. Revenue Cutter Service and the term Revenue Marine gradually fell into disuse, the modern Coast Guard was formed by a merger of the Revenue Cutter Service and the U. S. Life-Saving Service on 28 January 1915, under the U. S. Department of the Treasury. As one of the five armed services, the Coast Guard has been involved in every U. S. war from 1790 to the Iraq War. As of 2014 the Coast Guard had over 36,000 men and women on duty,7,350 reservists,29,620 auxiliarists. In terms of size, the U. S. Coast Guard by itself is the worlds 12th largest naval force. Because of its authority, the Coast Guard can conduct military operations under the U. S. Department of Defense or directly for the President in accordance with Title 14 USC 1–3. The Coast Guards enduring roles are maritime safety, security, to carry out those roles, it has 11 statutory missions as defined in 6 U. S. C. §468, which include enforcing U. S. law in the worlds largest exclusive economic zone of 3.4 million square miles, the Coast Guards motto is the Latin phrase, Semper Paratus. In a 2005 article in Time magazine following Hurricane Katrina, the author wrote, the Coast Guards most valuable contribution to may be as a model of flexibility, and most of all, spirit. Wil Milam, a swimmer from Alaska told the magazine, In the Navy. Practicing for war, training for war, in the Coast Guard, it was, take care of our people and the mission will take care of itself. The Coast Guard carries out three basic roles, which are subdivided into eleven statutory missions. Both agencies maintain rescue coordination centers to coordinate this effort, and have responsibility for military and civilian search and rescue. The two services jointly provide instructor staff for the National Search and Rescue School that trains SAR mission planners and coordinators, previously located on Governors Island, New York, the school is now located at Coast Guard Training Center Yorktown at Yorktown, Virginia. The NRC also takes Maritime Suspicious Activity and Security Breach Reports, details on the NRC organization and specific responsibilities can be found in the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan. The Marine Information for Safety and Law Enforcement database system is managed and used by the Coast Guard for tracking pollution, the five uniformed services that make up the U. S

United States Coast Guard
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A boatswain's mate watches from the side port door as Coast Guard Cutter Bertholf's Over-The-Horizon small boat departs to receive personnel from Coast Guard Cutter Chandeleur in 2008.
United States Coast Guard
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The official seal of the United States Coast Guard, adopted in December 1966.
United States Coast Guard
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A Coast Guard Aviation Survival Technician assisting with the rescue of a pregnant woman during Hurricane Katrina.
United States Coast Guard
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Search and Rescue Program Logo of the United States Coast Guard.

18.
Carrier Striking Task Force
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With the Kidō Butai as its primary carrier battle group, the IJN would reign supreme for the first six months of Americas entry to World War II. In 1912, the British Royal Navy had established its own flying branch, the IJN was modeled on the Royal Navy and the IJN Admiralty sought establishment of their own Naval Air Service. The IJN had also observed technical developments in countries and saw military potential of the airplane. In 1913, the IJN seaplane carrier Wakamiya was converted into a seaplane tender, the 1st and 2nd Air Fleet were to be the primary attack force of the IJNAS. Several Kōkūtai formed a Koku Sentai, while a Naval Air Fleet was made up of several Koku Sentai, on 10 April 1941 the Imperial Japanese Navy formed the First Air Fleet consisting of all seven of Japans aircraft fleet carriers and light carriers with a total of 474 aircraft. This was a naval battlegroup at the time with the single most powerful concentration of aviation in the world. The large fleet carriers had three types of aircraft, fighters, level/torpedo bombers, and dive bombers, the smaller carriers tended to have only two types of aircraft, fighters and torpedo bombers. The carrier-based Kōkūtai numbered over 1500 pilots with over 1500 aircraft, at the beginning of the Pacific War, there would be 6 fleet carriers—Akagi, Kaga, Soryu, Hiryu, Shokaku, and Zuikaku—and two light carriers, Ryujo and Zuiho. The Kidō Butai was the Combined Fleets tactical designation for its battle group. The title was used as a term of convenience, it was not a name for the organization. It consisted of Japans six largest carriers, carrying the 1st Air Fleet and this mobile task force was created for executing the attack on Pearl Harbor under Admiral Chūichi Nagumo in 1941. However, these ships were borrowed from other fleet and squadrons. It was considered the single most powerful naval fleet until four of the six carriers of the unit were destroyed in the disastrous Battle of Midway. On 14 July 1942, all carriers were moved to the 3rd Fleet, commander in Chief Chief of Staff On 1 June 1943, the 1st Air Fleet was reborn as the land-based Air Fleet. On 30 September 1943, a meeting planned the Absolute National Defence Zone strategy. The plan intended the Kuril Islands, Bonin Islands, Mariana Islands, Caroline Islands, Geelvink Bay, Sunda Islands, the 1st Air Fleet became the main force of this plan. However, it was beaten in the Battle of Philippine Sea. The IJN then moved the air fleet to the Philippines to regroup, however, the IJN lost the air fleet, as it was not combat ready in the Aerial Battle of Taiwan–Okinawa

19.
Kazuo Sakamaki
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Kazuo Sakamaki was a Japanese naval officer who became the first Japanese prisoner of war of World War II captured by US forces. Sakamaki was born in what is now part of the city of Awa, Tokushima Prefecture and he was a graduate of the 68th class of the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy in 1940. Sakamaki was one of ten sailors selected to attack Pearl Harbor in two-man Ko-hyoteki class midget submarines on 7 December 1941, of the ten, nine were killed. He had been chosen for the due to his large number of siblings. Sakamaki had set a charge to destroy his disabled submarine. When the explosives failed to go off, he swam to the bottom of the submarine to investigate the cause of the failure, the book Attack on Pearl Harbor claims that his sub hit four coral reefs and sank. Sakamaki was found by a Hawaiian soldier, David Akui, and was taken into military custody, when he awoke, he found himself in a hospital under American armed guard. Sakamaki became the first Japanese prisoner of war in American captivity during World War II and was stricken from Japanese records and his submarine was captured intact and was subsequently taken on tours across the United States as a means of encouraging the purchase of war bonds. After being taken to Sand Island, Sakamaki requested that he be allowed to commit suicide, Sakamaki spent the rest of the war in prisoner-of-war camps on the mainland United States. At the wars end, he was repatriated to Japan, by time he had become deeply committed to pacifism. Outside of writing a memoir, Sakamaki refused to speak about the war until 1991 and he reportedly cried at the conference when he was reunited with his submarine for the first time in 50 years. After the war, Sakamaki worked with the Toyota Motor Corporation, in 1983, he returned to Japan and worked for Toyota before retiring in 1987. He spent the rest of his life in Japan until his death in 1999 at the age of 81 and he was survived by his wife and two children. Literary Tropes, Rhetorical Looping, and the Nine Gods of War, the Anguish of Surrender, Japanese POWs of World War II. Sakamakis experience as a prisoner of war are detailed in the first chapter Prisoner Number One USS Ward, Report of Pearl Harbor Attack

20.
Niihau incident
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He was killed in a struggle with people on the island. The islands Native Hawaiian residents were unaware of the attack. Nishikaichi then sought and received the assistance of the three locals of Japanese descent on the island in overcoming his captors, finding weapons, the incident and the actions of Nishikaichis abettors demonstrated the potential for racial or ethnic allegiance to overwhelm national allegiance. This ultimately may have influenced Franklin D. Roosevelts decision to intern Japanese Americans during World War II, Ben Kanahele was decorated for his part in stopping the takeover, but Ella Kanahele received no official recognition. Niʻihau, the westernmost and second smallest of the primary Hawaiian Islands, has privately owned by the Robinsons. At the time of the incident, it had 136 inhabitants, in 1941 the owner was Aylmer Robinson, a Harvard University graduate who was fluent in Hawaiian. Robinson ran the island without interference from any government authority, and although he lived on the island of Kauaʻi. The island was accessible with permission from Robinson, which was almost never given except to friends or relatives of Niʻihauans. The handful of residents included three of Japanese ancestry, issei Ishimatsu Shintani and Hawaiian-born nisei Yoshio and Irene Harada, all of whom were involved in the incident. Prior to the Pearl Harbor attack, the Imperial Japanese Navy had designated Niʻihau, mistakenly believed to be uninhabited, pilots were told they could wait on the island until they were rescued by a submarine. Kaleohano was unaware of the attack at Pearl Harbor, but knew from newspapers that the relationship between the U. S. and Japan was poor due to Japanese expansionism and the U. S. oil embargo on Japan. Recognizing Nishikaichi and his plane as Japanese, Kaleohano thought it prudent to relieve the pilot of his pistol and he and the other Hawaiians who gathered about treated the pilot with courtesy and the traditional Hawaiian hospitality, even throwing a party for him later that Sunday afternoon. However, the Hawaiians could not understand Nishikaichi, who spoke only Japanese with an amount of English. They sent for Japanese-born Ishimatsu Shintani, who was married to a native Hawaiian, having been briefed on the situation beforehand and approaching the task with evident distaste, Shintani exchanged just a few words with the pilot and departed without explanation. Nishikaichi informed Harada of the attack on Pearl Harbor, a revelation Harada thought prudent not to share with the non-Japanese natives, Nishikaichi desperately wanted his papers returned, which he had been told should by no means fall into American hands, but Kaleohano refused to return them. The Haradas decided to assist Nishikaichi in retrieving his papers and escaping, Niʻihau had neither electricity nor telephones, but later that night, the Hawaiians heard a radio report about the Pearl Harbor attack on a battery-operated radio. The Hawaiians confronted the pilot, and this time Harada translated what was said about the attack, the owner of the island, Aylmer Robinson, was scheduled to arrive on his regular weekly trip from Kauaʻi, a much larger island just 17 miles away, the next morning. It was decided that the pilot would return to Kauaʻi with Robinson, Robinson did not arrive on Monday because the U. S. military had instituted a ban on boat traffic in the islands within hours of the attack

Niihau incident
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Aerial view of Ni ʻ ihau looking southwestward from the north, where the incident took place.
Niihau incident
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Shigenori Nishikaichi, the pilot who became the center of the Ni ʻ ihau Incident
Niihau incident
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A6M Zero in the markings of the aircraft flown by Nishikaichi on display at the Pacific Aviation Museum
Niihau incident
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Remains of Nishikaichi's Zero on 17 December 1941

21.
First Bombardment of Midway
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The First Bombardment of Midway, or the First Bombardment of Sand Island, or Attack on Midway, was a small land and sea engagement of World War II. It occurred on the very first day of the Pacific War,7 December 1941, two Imperial Japanese destroyers bombarded Sand Island of Midway Atoll. The Japanese successfully damaged the U. S. Marine base before being engaged by American shore batteries, before the beginning of the Pacific War, American marines were stationed on Midway and had established a small base with the ability to service land, sea and air forces. The marines also constructed all of the fortifications, civilian contractors constructed the buildings. They used 5 inch guns, built in 1916, and 3 inch guns of 1921 to defend the islands, fortifications dating back to 1905 were also manned. Not only were Pearl Harbor, Wake Island and the Philippines attacked in the phase of the conflict. The two destroyers were part of the Japanese fleet that had just attacked Pearl Harbor, overall, the unit was under the command of Captain Ohishi Kaname, though Lieutenant Commander Yoshitake Uesugi skippered Ushio and Lieutenant Commander Hiroshi Uwa skippered the other destroyer. The engagement began at 09,31 and lasted 54 minutes, the American command, communications and power plant building was damaged by a 5 in shell, which deflected off an adjacent laundromat. Battery H commander—First Lieutenant George H. Cannon—was hit by shrapnel in the pelvis while inside the command building, by the time Cannon received aid from a medic, it was too late, he perished due to blood loss. A street on Sand Island was named after Cannon and continues to be known by that name, six Japanese rounds struck and entered the main PBY Catalina hangar and destroyed a PBY inside, the Pilot and Fireman were killed, while other civilians inside survived without injury. The hospital was hit also and burned, all of the damaged buildings were quickly rebuilt by the civilian contractors. Shell craters littered the ground all around the buildings of Sand Island, the Marines did not use aircraft against the attacking Japanese. They did use their artillery batteries and managed to damage one of the destroyers when they came within range, the other destroyer quickly laid a smokescreen and the two vessels retired. Four men died on Midway that morning, Navy Ensign Donald J. Kraker and Fireman Second Class Ralph E. Tuttle and Marines Lieutenant Cannon and Private First Class Elmer R. Morrell. Navy Chief mechanics engineer John J. Szajkowski survived with another sailor by jumping in the water when they saw the planes coming for the hangar, Ushio fired 109 rounds and Sazanami fired 193. In February 1942, a Japanese submarine bombarded the atoll, in June 1942, the Battle of Midway was won by American forces. The marines also fought a deadly dog fight ending with heavy casualties for American forces and a loss of seven Japanese aircraft

First Bombardment of Midway
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Midway Atoll on November 24, 1941.
First Bombardment of Midway
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A shore gun on Sand Island.

22.
Shelling of Johnston and Palmyra
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Johnston and Palmyra are two US-controlled atolls located in the Pacific Ocean. Johnston had been claimed for the US in 1858, Palmyra in 1859, following the Attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese navy forces attacked Allied possessions across the Pacific, including Johnston and Palmyra. Both islands had been obtained through the Guano Islands Act of 1856, the lack of guano caused Palmyra to pass through the ownership of many different groups throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Johnston and Palmyra were placed under US Navy control in 1934 by President Franklin Roosevelt, both islands were garrisoned and Johnston served as a refueling station for passing US Navy ships. Although an airfield was under construction on Johnston, the only present on the island were Navy PBY patrol planes. Johnston became noticeable to the Japanese command because of its location, although it was too close to Hawaii to be amphibiously assaulted, it was near the major Japanese air base in the Marshall Islands. The executive officer of the 1st Marine Defense Battalion, Major Francis B, loomis, had arrived on Johnston on December 7,1941. He had been returning by air from an inspection of the American outposts in the Pacific when Pearl Harbor had been attacked and he then took control of the islands garrison. Following news of the Attack on Pearl Harbor, the civilian contractors already present on Johnston began to building more emplacements for the Marines guns and positions, six US Navy ships were also on Johnston, practicing their use of the Higgins Boat on Johnstons shore. For the next few days, there was little activity around both islands. The first attack on the islands came on December 12,1941, a Japanese submarine,8,000 yards offshore, broke the surface and fired star shells clusters over Johnston. The Marine 5-inch guns tried to find the submarine with its own star shell clusters. Another attack came on the night of 15th, the US Navy supply ship, William Ward Burrows, had arrived at dusk to drop off supplies meant for the Marines stranded on Wake, and to retrieve some civilian contractors to return to Pearl Harbor. The Navy ship and the Marines on Johnston spotted a flash at sea, the first enemy shells hit Johnston and its powerhouse, setting off a large fire that engulfed the building. The Marines returned fire for ten minutes until the submarine ceased firing, the final attacks came on the nights of December 21 and 22. The December 21 shelling was almost a repeat of the attack on December 12, the final attack came on the 22nd. A Japanese submarine fired a star cluster and six shells at Johnston knocking down a homing tower. Fire from Marines coastal batteries forced the submarine to submerge, the sole attack on Palmyra came near dawn on December 24,1941

Shelling of Johnston and Palmyra
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Maj. James Masters, USMC on Johnston, 1942

23.
Operation K
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It culminated on 4 March 1942, with an unsuccessful attack carried out by two Kawanishi H8K Emily flying boats. This was the longest distance ever undertaken by a bombing mission. Plans to bomb California and Texas were being discussed, when the need for updated information regarding the repairs to US Navy facilities at Pearl Harbor took precedence. An assessment of the repairs to the docks, yards and airfields of Oahu would help the IJN staff to determine American ability to power for months to come. Initial plans called for the use of five H8K aircraft and they would fly to French Frigate Shoals, the largest atoll in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, to be refueled by submarines prior to taking off for Oahu. If the first raid was successful, additional raids would be made, the codebreakers had reason to correctly interpret the Japanese intent. Edwin T. Laytons staff included Lieutenant Jasper Holmes, who, writing under the pen name Alec Hudson, had a story entitled Rendezvous published in an August,1941, when time came for the raid, only two of the big flying boats were available. Pilot Lieutenant Hisao Hashizume was in command of the mission, with Ensign Shosuke Sasao flying the second airplane and they were sent to Wotje Atoll in the Marshall Islands, where each airplane was loaded with four 250-kilogram bombs. From there, they flew 3,100 kilometers to French Frigate Shoals to refuel, then set off for Oahu,900 kilometers distant. In addition to their mission, they were to bomb the Ten-Ten dock – named for its length,1,010 feet – at the Pearl Harbor naval base to disrupt salvage. However, errors ensued on both sides, the Japanese submarine I-23 was supposed to station itself just south of Oahu as a lifeguard and weather spotter for the flying boats, but was lost sometime after 14 February. Japanese cryptanalysts had broken the United States Navy weather code, but a change on 1 March eliminated that alternative source of weather information over Pearl Harbor. The mission proceeded on the assumption of clear skies over Pearl Harbor from knowledge of conditions at French Frigate Shoals, American radar stations on Kauai picked up and tracked the two planes as they approached the main Hawaiian Islands, prompting a search by Curtiss P-40 Warhawk fighters. Consolidated PBY Catalina flying boats were sent to seek Japanese aircraft carriers. However, a layer of nimbus clouds over Pearl Harbor prevented the defenders from spotting the Japanese planes flying at an altitude of 4,600 meters. Those same clouds also confused the IJN pilots, using the Kaena Point lighthouse for a position fix, Hashizume decided to attack from the north. Sasao, however, did not hear Hashizumes order and instead turned to skirt the southern coast of Oahu and he was unable to see Pearl Harbor, the only lit facility on Oahu due to blackout conditions intended to hinder air raids. Hashizumes bombs landed about 300 meters from Roosevelt High School, creating craters 2–3 meters deep, damage was limited to shattered windows

24.
Battle of Midway
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The Battle of Midway was a decisive naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II. Military historian John Keegan called it the most stunning and decisive blow in the history of naval warfare, the Japanese hoped another demoralizing defeat would force the U. S. to capitulate in the Pacific War and thus ensure Japanese dominance in the Pacific. Luring the American aircraft carriers into a trap and occupying Midway was part of an overall strategy to extend Japans defensive perimeter. This operation was also considered preparatory for further attacks against Fiji, Samoa, the plan was handicapped by faulty Japanese assumptions of the American reaction and poor initial dispositions. Most significantly, American cryptographers were able to determine the date and location of the planned attack, the Battle of Midway, along with the Guadalcanal Campaign, is widely considered a turning point in the Pacific War. Because of this, preliminary planning for a phase of operations commenced as early as January 1942. Admiral Yamamoto finally succeeded in winning the struggle with a thinly veiled threat to resign. Yamamotos primary strategic goal was the elimination of Americas carrier forces and this, and other successful hit-and-run raids by American carriers in the South Pacific, showed that they were still a threat, although seemingly reluctant to be drawn into an all-out battle. Yamamoto reasoned that another air attack on the main U. S. Naval base at Pearl Harbor would induce all of the American fleet to sail out to fight, including the carriers. Instead, Yamamoto selected Midway, a tiny atoll at the extreme northwest end of the Hawaiian Island chain and this meant that Midway was outside the effective range of almost all of the American aircraft stationed on the main Hawaiian islands. In addition to serving as a base, Midways airstrips also served as a forward staging point for bomber attacks on Wake Island. Typical of Japanese naval planning during World War II, Yamamotos battle plan for taking Midway was exceedingly complex and it required the careful and timely coordination of multiple battle groups over hundreds of miles of open sea. His design was predicated on optimistic intelligence suggesting that USS Enterprise and USS Hornet. During the Battle of the Coral Sea one month earlier, USS Lexington had been sunk, however, following hasty repairs at Pearl Harbor, Yorktown sortied and would go on to play a critical role in the discovery and eventual destruction of the Japanese fleet carriers at Midway. Yamamoto felt deception would be required to lure the U. S. fleet into a compromised situation. To this end, he dispersed his forces so that their full extent would be concealed from the Americans prior to battle, critically, Yamamotos supporting battleships and cruisers trailed Vice Admiral Chūichi Nagumos carrier force by several hundred miles. What Yamamoto did not know was that the U. S. had broken the main Japanese naval code and his emphasis on dispersal also meant none of his formations were in a position to support each other. By contrast, Yamamoto and Kondo had between two light carriers, five battleships, four heavy cruisers, and two light cruisers, none of which would see action at Midway

25.
Pacific War
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The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia-Pacific War, was the theater of World War II that was fought in the Pacific and East Asia. It was fought over a vast area that included the Pacific Ocean and islands, the South West Pacific, South-East Asia, and in China. The Pacific War saw the Allied powers pitted against the Empire of Japan, the formal and official surrender of Japan took place aboard the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on 2 September 1945. In Allied countries during the war, The Pacific War was not usually distinguished from World War II in general, or was known simply as the War against Japan. Japan used the name Greater East Asia War, as chosen by a decision on 10 December 1941. Japanese officials integrated what they called the Japan–China Incident into the Greater East Asia War, in Japan, the Fifteen Years War is also used, referring to the period from the Mukden Incident of 1931 through 1945. The Phayap Army sent troops to invade and occupy northeastern Burma, also involved were the Japanese puppet states of Manchukuo and Mengjiang, and the collaborationist Wang Jingwei regime. The official policy of the U. S. Government is that Thailand was not an ally of the Axis, Japan conscripted many soldiers from its colonies of Korea and Formosa. To a small extent, some Vichy French, Indian National Army, Germany and Italy both had limited involvement in the Pacific War. The German and the Italian navies operated submarines and raiding ships in the Indian, the Italians had access to concession territory naval bases in China, while the Germans did not. After Japans attack on Pearl Harbor and the subsequent declarations of war, mexico, Free France and many other countries also took part, especially forces from other British colonies. Between 1942 and 1945, there were four main areas of conflict in the Pacific War, China, the Central Pacific, South East Asia, U. S. sources refer to two theaters within the Pacific War, the Pacific theater and the China Burma India Theater. However these were not operational commands, in the Pacific, the Allies divided operational control of their forces between two supreme commands, known as Pacific Ocean Areas and Southwest Pacific Area. In 1945, for a period just before the Japanese surrender. By 1937, Japan controlled Manchuria and was ready to move deeper into China, the Marco Polo Bridge Incident on 7 July 1937 provoked full-scale war between China and Japan. In August 1937, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek deployed his best army to fight about 300,000 Japanese troops in Shanghai, the Japanese continued to push the Chinese forces back, capturing the capital Nanking in December 1937 and committed which was known as Nanking Massacre. In March 1938, Nationalist forces won their first victory at Taierzhuang, but then the city of Xuzhou was taken by Japanese in May. In June 1938, Japan deployed about 350,000 troops to invade Wuhan, the Japanese achieved major military victories, but world opinion—in particular in the United States—condemned Japan, especially after the Panay incident

Pacific War
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Map showing the main areas of the conflict and Allied landings in the Pacific, 1942–45.
Pacific War
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Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, Allied Commander-in-Chief in the China theatre from 1942 to 1945.
Pacific War
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Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek and Joseph Stilwell, Allied Commander-in-Chief in the China theatre from 1942–1945.
Pacific War
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The Pacific War Council as photographed on 12 October 1942. Pictured are representatives from the United States (seated) China, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and the Philippine Commonwealth.

26.
Japanese invasion of French Indochina
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The fighting, which lasted several days before the French authorities reached an agreement with the Japanese, took place in the context of the ongoing Sino-Japanese War and World War II. Japan was able to occupy Tonkin in northern Indochina, tightening the blockade of China, chinese resistance, supplied from Indochina, was tough. Then on 22 June 1940, France signed an armistice with Germany and this established the neutral but Axis-influenced Vichy France government in the unoccupied part of France. Vichy France also controlled at that time most French overseas possessions, the IJA captured Longzhou, closing one route, but the rail line to Yunnan was still open. Japanese aerial bombing did not close it, Japan pressured the Vichy government to close the railway, but the French did not agree. On 5 September, the South China Front Army of the IJA organised the amphibious Indochina Expeditionary Army to move into Indochina, led by Major-General Takuma Nishimura, it was supported by a flotilla of ships, and planes from aircraft carriers and air bases on Hainan Island. Faced with this threat, Vichy France yielded. On 22 September, Japan and Vichy Indochina signed an accord which granted Japan the rights to station troops in Indochina, and to move troops and supplies through Indochina. The accord allowed up to 6,000 Japanese troops to be stationed in Indochina, in addition, all Japanese land, air, and naval forces were barred from Indochinese territory except as authorised in the accord. Within a few hours, columns from the IJA 5th Division under Lieutenant-General Akihito Nakamura moved over the border at three places and closed in on the railhead at Lang Son, near Longzhou and this action contravened the new agreement. In the Battle of Lang Son, a brigade of French Indochinese colonial troops, the Japanese victory opened the way to Hanoi. Still, the Vichy French continued to fight on in the north and south of the colony, on 23 September, Vichy France protested the breach of the agreements by the IJA to the Japanese government. On the morning of 24 September, Japanese aircraft from carriers in the Gulf of Tonkin attacked French positions on the coast. A Vichy envoy came to negotiate, in the meantime, shore defenses remained under orders to fire on any attempted landing. On 26 September, Japanese forces came ashore at Dong Tac, south of Haiphong, a second landing put tanks ashore, and Japanese planes bombed Haiphong, causing some casualties. By early afternoon the Japanese force of some 4,500 troops, by the evening of 26 September, fighting had died down. The occupation of southern Indochina did not happen immediately, however, the Vichy government had agreed that some 40,000 troops could be stationed there. However, Japanese planners did not immediately move troops there, worried that such a move would be inflammatory to relations between Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States

Japanese invasion of French Indochina
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Japanese troops entering Saigon.
Japanese invasion of French Indochina
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Japanese soldiers enter Saigon by bicycle in 1941.
Japanese invasion of French Indochina
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Insigna of the Free French Forces in the Far East (Langlade Mission).
Japanese invasion of French Indochina
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Japanese guard cap, from the internment camp of Martin-des-Pallières in Saigon.

27.
Japanese invasion of Thailand
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The Japanese invasion of Thailand occurred on 8 December 1941. It was fought between the Kingdom of Thailand and the Empire of Japan, despite fierce fighting in southern Thailand, the resistance lasted only a matter of hours before ending in a ceasefire. The origin of Japanese invasion of Thailand can be traced to the principle of hakkō ichiu as espouced by Tanaka Chigaku in the mid- to late-1800s, Tanaka interpreted the principle as meaning that imperial rule had been divinely ordained to expand until it united the entire world. The concept became expressed in the New Order in East Asia, in 1940, the concept was expanded by Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe, who sought to create the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, including Japan, Manchukuo, China, and parts of Southeast Asia. Taiwan Army Unit 82 was formed in 1939 or 1940 to bring this about, in its final planning stages, the unit was commanded by Colonel Yoshihide Hayashi. As part of conquering Southeast Asia, the Japanese military planned to invade Malaya, in order to do this, they needed to make use of Thai ports, railways, and airfields. They did not want conflict with the Thai military, as this would delay the invasion, the Japanese plan was seen by the Nazi government of Germany as helpful in diverting Britains military forces, and thus assisting Germany in its own conflict. Thailand had a military, and after a series of border skirmishes in 1940 had invaded neighbouring French Indochina to recover provinces lost in the Franco-Siamese War of 1893. The Japanese, who wanted to use the Indo-Chinese ports and air-bases, as part of the process, secret discussions were held with Thai Prime Minister Phibun Songkhram, in which the Japanese military sought free passage through Thailand. Phibun had responded positively, but his actions showed he may have been very uncertain. By February, the British were beginning to suspect the Japanese were planning to attack their possessions in Southeast Asia and were concerned Japan might set up bases in Thailand to that end. Phibun could have decided he had little choice, as his own forces would have been unable to defeat the Japanese by themselves, thailands invasion of French Indochina in 1940 made it difficult for the United States government to support Phibun. Midway through 1941, Phibun sought British and American guarantees of support if Japan invaded Thailand. The United States was unable to support this proposition, and Britain was not prepared to make it alone, by August, Britain and the United States had put in place severe sanctions against Japan. The Japanese sought to have the sanctions lifted by promising not to encroach on Thailand and to withdraw their forces from Indochina and this proposal was unacceptable to both Britain and the United States because of its impact on China. In late November, the British had become aware of an attack on Thailand by Japan because of the rapid buildup of Japanese troops in Indochina. Further negotiations took place between the Japanese diplomatic representative, Tamara, and Phibun on 2 December, Phibun was prepared to look the other way if Japan invaded the Kra Peninsula, but wanted them to avoid passing through the Bangkok Plain. On 2 December, the Japanese military issued the order Climb Mount Niitaka, the main invasion fleet for Operation E, the invasion of Malaya and Thailand, sailed from Sanya, Hainan Island, China on 4 December

Japanese invasion of Thailand
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Thai Prime Minister Phibun Songkhram
Japanese invasion of Thailand
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Map of the Japanese invasion of Thailand. December 8, 1941
Japanese invasion of Thailand
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No. 1 Squadron RAAF Lockheed Hudsons at Kota Bharu in 1941
Japanese invasion of Thailand
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IJN light cruiser Kashii in 1941

28.
Malayan Campaign
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The Malayan Campaign was fought by Allied and Axis forces in Malaya, from 8 December 1941 –31 January 1942 during the Second World War. The Japanese had air and naval supremacy from the days of the campaign. For the British, Indian, Australian and Malayan forces defending the colony, the operation is notable for the Japanese use of bicycle infantry, which allowed troops to carry more equipment and swiftly move through thick jungle terrain. Royal Engineers, equipped with demolition charges, destroyed over a hundred bridges during the retreat, by the time the Japanese had captured Singapore, they had suffered 9,800 casualties, Allied losses totaled 138,708, including 130,000 captured. By 1941 the Japanese had been engaged for four years in trying to subjugate China and they were heavily reliant on imported materials for their military forces, particularly oil from the United States. From 1940 to 1941, the United States, the United Kingdom, the object of the embargoes was to assist the Chinese and encourage the Japanese to halt military action in China. The Japanese considered that pulling out of China would result in a loss of face and decided instead to take action against US, British. The Japanese forces for the invasion were assembled in 1941 on Hainan Island and this troop build-up was noticed by the Allies and, when asked, the Japanese advised that it related to its operations in China. When the Japanese invaded, they had over 200 tanks, consisting of the Type 95 Ha-Go, Type 97 Chi-Ha, Type 89 I-Go, in addition, they had over 500 combat aircraft available. They had just over 250 combat aircraft, but half of these were destroyed inside the first few days of combat, between the wars, the British military strategy in the Far East was undermined by a lack of attention and funding. He predicted that landings could be made at Songkhla and Pattani in Siam and he recommended large reinforcements to be sent immediately. His predictions turned out to be correct, but his recommendations were ignored, a strong naval presence was also thought to act as a deterrent against possible aggressors. By late 1941, after Lieutenant-General Arthur E. Percival had taken over as GOC Malaya, in addition, Churchill and Roosevelt had agreed that in the event of war breaking out in the east, priority would be given to finishing the war in the west. The east, until that time, would be a secondary priority, containment was considered the primary strategy in the east. Planning for this offensive was undertaken by the Japanese Military Affairs Bureaus Unit 82 based in Taiwan, intelligence on Malaya was gathered through a network of agents which included Japanese embassy staff, disaffected Malayans, and Japanese, Korean, and Taiwanese business people and tourists. Japanese spies, which included a British intelligence officer, Captain Patrick Stanley Vaughan Heenan, in November 1941 the British became aware of the large scale buildup of Japanese troops in French Indo-China. Thailand was seen to be under threat from this build-up as well as Malaya, British strategists had foreseen the possibility of Thailands Kra isthmus being used by the Japanese to invade Malaya. To counteract this threat, plans for a pre-emptive invasion of southern Thailand

Malayan Campaign
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Japanese troops crouch in the street of Johor Bahru in the final stages of the campaign
Malayan Campaign
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Lt Gen Arthur Percival GOC of Malaya at the time of the Japanese invasion
Malayan Campaign
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Lt Gen Tomoyuki Yamashita, Commander of the Japanese 25th Army.
Malayan Campaign
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Map of the Malayan Campaign

29.
Battle of Hong Kong
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The Battle of Hong Kong, also known as the Defence of Hong Kong and the Fall of Hong Kong, was one of the first battles of the Pacific War in World War II. On the same morning as the attack on Pearl Harbor, forces of the Empire of Japan attacked the British Crown colony of Hong Kong, the attack was in violation of international law as Japan had not declared war against the British Empire. The Japanese attack was met with resistance from the Hong Kong garrison, composed of local troops as well as British. Within a week the defenders abandoned the mainland and less than two weeks later, with their position on the island untenable, the colony surrendered. Britain first thought of Japan as a threat with the ending of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance in the early 1920s, on 21 October 1938 the Japanese occupied Canton and Hong Kong was surrounded. British defence studies concluded that Hong Kong would be hard to defend in the event of a Japanese attack. Key sites of the defence of Hong Kong included the Wong Nai Chung Gap, Lye Moon Passage, the Shing Mun Redoubt, by 1940, the British determined to reduce the Hong Kong Garrison to only a symbolic size. Winston Churchill and the staff named Hong Kong as an outpost. C Force, as it was known, arrived on 16 November on board the troopship Awatea, a total of 96 officers, two Auxiliary Services supervisors and 1,877 other ranks disembarked. Included were two officers and two nurses, two Canadian Dental Corps officers with assistants, three chaplains and a detachment of the Canadian Postal Corps. The Royal Rifles had served only in the Dominion of Newfoundland and Saint John, New Brunswick, prior to posting to Hong Kong, the Japanese attack began shortly after 08,00 on 8 December 1941, fewer than eight hours after the Attack on Pearl Harbor. The colony had no significant air defence, an earlier request for a fighter squadron had been rejected and the nearest fully operational RAF base was in Kota Bharu, Malaya, nearly 2,250 kilometres away. Hong Kong also lacked adequate naval defences, three destroyers were to withdraw to Singapore Naval Base. The Japanese bombed Kai Tak Airport on 8 December, two of the three Wildebeest and the two Walrus were destroyed by 12 Japanese bombers. The attack also destroyed several aircraft including all but two of the aircraft used by the air unit of the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corp. The RAF and air personnel from then on fought as ground troops. Two of the Royal Navys three remaining destroyers were ordered to leave Hong Kong for Singapore, only one destroyer, HMS Thracian, several gunboats and a flotilla of motor torpedo boats remained. The crews evacuated 275 persons including Mme Sun Yat-Sen, the widow of Sun Yat-sen, the Commonwealth forces decided against holding the Sham Chun River and instead established three battalions on the Gin Drinkers Line across the hills

Battle of Hong Kong
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Japanese troops in Tsim Sha Tsui during the Battle of Hong Kong
Battle of Hong Kong
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Six weeks before the battle, this Canadian contingent arrives to bolster British presence.
Battle of Hong Kong
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Japanese artillery firing at Hong Kong
Battle of Hong Kong
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Canadian infantrymen in Hong Kong with a Bren gun

30.
Battle of Guam (1941)
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The First Battle of Guam was an engagement during the Pacific War in World War II, and took place on 8 December 1941 on Guam in the Mariana Islands between Japan and the United States. The American garrison was defeated by Japanese forces, which resulted in an occupation until the Second Battle of Guam in 1944, Guam is the southernmost part of the Mariana Islands in the Pacific Ocean. It is the largest of the islands, with an area of 225 square miles, Guams interior is rugged, with heavy tropical forest in the north of the island and wooded hills in the south. Much of the coastline is edged with coral reefs and cliffs. Guam has a climate, though December forms part of the dry season. The United States captured Guam from the Kingdom of Spain on 21 June 1898 during the Spanish–American War, the next year Spain sold the other islands in the Marianas chain to Germany. The United States Navy established a facility near the village of Piti on Guam in 1899, a naval coaling station was established on the island in 1905, and a battery of six 6-inch guns was emplaced to strengthen Guams defenses in 1909. A U. S. Navy captain served as both the Governor and commander of the base from 1899 onwards, though there were some elements of a civilian government on the island. During World War I, Japanese forces captured the German islands in the Marianas during October 1914 and established a garrison which was designated the South Seas Defense Force. Japan gained a mandate over the islands from the League of Nations in December 1920, Japanese colonists were permitted to settle in the Marianas, and by the late 1930s there were more colonists than natives in the Japanese islands. In 1935 the Japanese Government banned westerners from entering its mandated islands in the Pacific, while the United States considered increasing Guams defenses during and after World War I, no action was taken other than to deploy a USMC seaplane unit to the island in 1921. As a result, no improvements were made to Guams defenses during the 1920s and 1930s. The USMC seaplane unit also departed the next year, the Navy sought permission to build fortifications on the island in 1938, but this proposal was rejected. In 1941 Guam had a population of 23,394, most of whom lived in or within 10 miles of the capital of Agana. The island had about 85 miles of improved roads and Apra Harbor was considered the best in the Marianas, Japanese plans for the Pacific War included capturing Guam within the wars first days. From March 1941 Japanese aircraft flew reconnaissance sorties over the island. Plans for the invasion of the island were completed in September that year, the South Seas Detachment comprised the 144th Infantry Regiment and other units detached from the 55th Division and had a strength of 4,886 men. The South Seas Detachment was concentrated in Korea during November 1941 and, following a stay in Japan

Battle of Guam (1941)
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Another illustration of the route Japanese forces followed during the invasion
Battle of Guam (1941)
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A Japanese illustration of the main landing on Guam by the 144th Infantry Regiment, South Seas Detachment. Painting by Kohei Ezaki.

31.
Battle of Wake Island
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The Battle of Wake Island began simultaneously with the attack on Pearl Harbor and ended on 23 December 1941, with the surrender of the American forces to the Empire of Japan. The island was held by the Japanese for the duration of the Pacific War, in January 1941, the United States Navy constructed a military base on the atoll. On 19 August, the first permanent military garrison, understrength elements of the 1st Marine Defense Battalion, totaling 450 officers and men, were stationed on the island, under Major James P. S. The defense battalion was supplemented by Marine Corps fighter squadron VMF-211, consisting of 12 F4F-3 Wildcat fighters, also, present on the island were 68 U. S. Navy personnel and about 1,221 civilian workers for the Morrison-Knudsen Civil Engineering Company. Forty-five Chamorro men were employed by Pan American Airways at the facilities in Wake Island. On 28 November, Commander Winfield S. Cunningham reported to Wake to assume command of U. S. forces on the island. He had only 10 days to examine the defenses and assess his men before war broke out, the remaining four Wildcats were in the air patrolling, but because of poor visibility, failed to see the attacking Japanese bombers. These Wildcats did down two bombers on the following day, all of the Marine garrisons defensive emplacements were left intact by the raid, which primarily targeted the aircraft. Of the 55 Marine aviation personnel,23 were killed and 11 were wounded, following this attack, the Pan Am employees were evacuated, along with the passengers of a Clipper flying boat that had survived the attack unscathed. The Chamorro men were not allowed to board the plane and were left behind, the main camp was targeted on 9 December, destroying the civilian hospital and the Pan Am facility. The next day, bombers focused on Wilkes Island, following the raid on 9 December, the guns had been relocated in case the Japanese had photographed the positions. Wooden replicas were erected in their place, and the Japanese bombers attacked the decoy positions, a lucky strike on a civilian dynamite supply set off a chain reaction and destroyed the munitions for the guns on Wilkes. Marines fired at the fleet with their six 5-inch coast-defense guns. Major Devereux, the Marine commander under Cunningham, ordered the gunners to hold their fire until the enemy moved within range of the coastal defenses, yubaris superstructure was hit 11 times. The four Wildcats also succeeded in sinking the destroyer Kisaragi by dropping a bomb on her stern where the charges were stored. Both Japanese destroyers were lost with all hands, with Hayate becoming the first Japanese surface warship to be sunk in the war. The Japanese force withdrew without landing and this was the first Japanese setback of the war against the Americans. After the initial raid was fought off, American news media reported that, in fact, Cunningham sent a long list of critical equipment—including gunsights, spare parts, and fire-control radar—to his immediate superior, Commandant, 14th Naval District

32.
Dutch East Indies campaign
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The Dutch East Indies campaign of 1941–42 was the conquest of the Dutch East Indies by forces from the Empire of Japan in the early days of the Pacific Campaign of World War II. Forces from the Allies attempted unsuccessfully to defend the islands, the East Indies were targeted by the Japanese for their rich oil resources which would become a vital asset during the war. The campaign and subsequent three and a half year Japanese occupation was also a factor in the end of Dutch colonial rule in the region. S. The oil made the enormously important to the Japanese, so they sought to secure the supply for themselves. In addition, the Dutch government in exile, at the urging of the Allies and with the support of Queen Wilhelmina, broke its economic treaty with Japan, Japans military and economic reserves included only a year and a halfs worth of oil. As a U. S. declaration of war against Japan was feared if the latter took the East Indies, Pacific Fleet, allowing them to overtake the islands, this led to the attack on Pearl Harbor. In late November, the East Indies government began preparing for war, ships of the Royal Netherlands Navy were sent to sea and this was in the hopes that the Dutch would not preemptively destroy oil installations before the Japanese were ready to invade. On 8 December 1941, in a proclamation, the Netherlands declared war on Japan. By 7,00 a. m. on the day of the attack, at that hour, the governor general made a public announcement over the radio that the Netherlands accepts the challenge and takes up arms against the Japanese Empire. Instructions had been telegraphed to the embassy in Tokyo at 2,30 a. m. even before news of the attack on Pearl Harbor had reached the Dutch government in London at 4,00. The instructions were received on the evening of the next day. Pabst, on the morning of 10 December, the Swedish ambassador agreed to handle Dutch interests for the duration of the conflict. The Dutch declaration did not alter the Japanese decision, and the declaration of war did not come until 11 January 1942. The tribunal rejected this, on the grounds that Japans sole intention was to give time to the Netherlands for destroying oil wells. They found that the Netherlands declaration was in self-defence, General Hisaichi Terauchi, commander of the Southern Expeditionary Army Group, began the campaign by sending the 16th Army under command of General Hitoshi Imamura to attack Borneo. On 17 December, Japanese forces successfully landed on Miri, an oil production centre in northern Sarawak, with support from a battleship, initially, the Japanese forces launched air strikes on key areas and gained air superiority. Following the airstrikes, landings were made at several locations targeting airfields, in addition to the landings at Miri, the Japanese forces made landings at Seria, Kuching, Jesselton and Sandakan between 15 December 1941 and 19 January 1942. After these main objectives in Borneo were completed, the Japanese forces planned a three-pronged assault southward using three forces named Eastern Force, Center Force and Western Force, the aim of this assault was to capture the oil resources in the East Indies

Dutch East Indies campaign
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Japanese forces land on Java.
Dutch East Indies campaign
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The Japanese lines of advance in the Dutch East Indies, Sarawak and North Borneo (British), and Portuguese Timor.

33.
New Guinea campaign
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The New Guinea campaign of the Pacific War lasted from January 1942 until the end of the war in August 1945. The campaign resulted in a defeat and very heavy losses for Empire of Japan. As in most Pacific War campaigns, disease and starvation claimed more Japanese lives than enemy action, most Japanese troops never even came into contact with Allied forces, and were instead simply cut off and subjected to an effective blockade by the US Navy. Garrisons were effectively besieged and denied shipments of food and medical supplies, according to John Laffin, the campaign. was arguably the most arduous fought by any Allied troops during World War II. The struggle for New Guinea began with the capture by the Japanese of the city of Rabaul at the tip of New Britain Island in January 1942. Rabaul overlooks Simpson Harbor, a natural anchorage, and was ideal for the construction of airfields. Over the next year, the Japanese built up the area into a major air, the Japanese 8th Area Army, under General Hitoshi Imamura at Rabaul, was responsible for both the New Guinea and Solomon Islands campaigns. The Japanese 18th Army, under Lieutenant General Hatazō Adachi, was responsible for Japanese operations on mainland New Guinea, the colonial capital of Port Moresby on the south coast of Papua was the strategic key for the Japanese in this area of operations. Capturing it would both neutralize the Allies principal forward base and serve as a springboard for the invasion of Australia, for the same reasons, General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander Allied Forces South West Pacific Area was determined to hold it. MacArthur was further determined to conquer all of New Guinea in his progress toward the eventual recapture of the Philippines, General Headquarters Southwest Pacific Area Operational Instruction No. Due north of Port Moresby, on the northeast coast of Papua, are Huon Gulf, the Japanese entered Lae and Salamaua, two locations on Huon Gulf, unopposed in early March 1942. MacArthur would have liked to deny this area to the Japanese, the Japanese at Rabaul and other bases on New Britain would have easily overwhelmed any such effort. Operation Mo was the designation given by the Japanese to their plan to take possession of Port Moresby. After this failure, the Japanese decided on a longer term, simultaneous operations from these two locations, one amphibious and one overland, would converge on the target city. Buna was easily taken as the Allies had no presence there. The Japanese occupied the village with a force of 1,500 on 21 July. Then began the grueling Kokoda Track campaign, an experience for both the Japanese and Australian troops involved. On 17 September, the Japanese had reached the village of Ioribaiwa, the Australians held firm and began their counterdrive on 26 September. the Japanese retreat down the Kokoda Trail had turned into a rout

New Guinea campaign
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Australian forces attack Japanese positions near Buna
New Guinea campaign
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Papua New Guinea, the Bismarcks and the Northern Solomons
New Guinea campaign
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Two dead Japanese soldiers in a water filled shell hole somewhere in New Guinea
New Guinea campaign
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Australian soldiers resting in the Finisterre Ranges of New Guinea while en route to the front line

34.
Battle of Singapore
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Singapore was the major British military base in South-East Asia and was the keystone of British imperial interwar defence planning for South-East Asia as well as the South-West Pacific. The fighting in Singapore lasted from 8 to 15 February 1942 although this was preceded by two months of British resistance as Japanese forces advanced down the Malaya peninsula and it resulted in the Japanese capture of Singapore and the largest surrender of British-led military personnel in history. About 80,000 British, Indian and Australian troops became prisoners of war, the British prime minister, Winston Churchill, called it the worst disaster in British military history. During 1940 and 1941, the Allies had imposed an embargo on Japan in response to its continued campaigns in China. The Japanese were encouraged to choose war by their intelligence, in December 1940, the Germans handed over copies of the papers to the Japanese. As a part of process, the Japanese planners determined a broad scheme of manoeuvre that incorporated simultaneous attacks on the British. In addition, strikes would be made against the United States naval fleet at Pearl Harbor, as well as landings in the Philippines, and attacks on Guam, Wake Island and the Gilbert Islands. With this perimeter, it was intended to block Allied attempts to regain the lost territory, the Japanese 25th Army invaded from Indochina, moving into northern Malaya and Thailand by amphibious assault on 8 December 1941. This was virtually simultaneous with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor which precipitated the United States entry in to the war, Thailand initially resisted, but soon had to yield. The Japanese then proceeded overland across the Thai–Malayan border to attack Malaya, at this time, the Japanese began bombing strategic sites in Singapore. The Japanese 25th Army was resisted in northern Malaya by III Corps of the British Indian Army, although the 25th Army was outnumbered by Allied forces in Malaya and Singapore, Japanese commanders concentrated their forces. The Japanese were superior in close air support, armour, co-ordination, tactics, prior to the Battle of Singapore the most resistance was met at the Battle of Muar, which involved the Australian 8th Division and the Indian 45th Brigade. At the start of the campaign, the Allied forces had only 164 first-line aircraft on hand in Malaya and Singapore, and these aircraft were operated by two Royal Australian Air Force, two Royal Air Force, and one Royal New Zealand Air Force squadron. Major shortcomings included a slow rate of climb and the fuel system which required the pilot to hand pump fuel if flying above 6,000 feet. Their fighter aircraft were superior to the Allied fighters, which helped the Japanese to gain air supremacy, Japanese forces quickly isolated, surrounded, and forced the surrender of Indian units defending the coast. They advanced down the Malayan peninsula overwhelming the defences, despite their numerical inferiority, the Japanese forces also used bicycle infantry and light tanks, allowing swift movement through the jungle. The Allies, however, having thought the terrain made them impractical, had no tanks, and only a few armoured vehicles, although more Allied units—including some from the Australian 8th Division—joined the campaign, the Japanese prevented the Allied forces from regrouping. They also overran cities and advanced toward Singapore, the city was an anchor for the operations of the American-British-Dutch-Australian Command, the first Allied joint command of the Second World War

Battle of Singapore
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Lieutenant-General Arthur Percival, led by a Japanese officer, walks under a flag of truce to negotiate the capitulation of Allied forces in Singapore, on 15 February 1942. It was the largest surrender of British-led forces in history.
Battle of Singapore
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View of the blown up causeway, with the gap visible in the middle, which delayed the Japanese conquest for over a week to 8 February
Battle of Singapore
Battle of Singapore
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One of Singapore's 15-inch coastal defence guns elevated for firing

35.
Axis naval activity in Australian waters
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Although Australia was remote from the main battlefronts, there was considerable Axis naval activity in Australian waters during the Second World War. A total of 54 German and Japanese warships and submarines entered Australian waters between 1940 and 1945 and attacked ships, ports and other targets, in addition, many Allied merchant ships were damaged or sunk off the Australian coast by submarines and mines. Japanese submarines also shelled several Australian ports and submarine-based aircraft flew over several Australian capital cities, the Axis threat to Australia developed gradually and until 1942 was limited to sporadic attacks by German armed merchantmen. The Japanese submarine offensive against Australia was renewed in the first half of 1943 but was broken off as the Allies pushed the Japanese onto the defensive, few Axis naval vessels operated in Australian waters in 1944 and 1945, and those that did had only a limited impact. Due to the nature of the Axis attacks and the relatively small number of ships and submarines committed, Germany. The definition of Australian waters used throughout this article is, broadly speaking and this vast area consisted of the waters around Australia and eastern New Guinea, and stretching south to Antarctica. From east to west, it stretched from 170° east in the Pacific Ocean to 80° east in the Indian Ocean, the defence of the Australia Station was the Royal Australian Navys main concern throughout the war. While RAN ships frequently served outside Australian waters, escort vessels and these escorts were supported by a small number of larger warships, such as cruisers and armed merchant cruisers, for protection against surface raiders. While important military shipping movements were escorted from the start of the war, the Australian naval authorities did, however, close ports to shipping at various times following real or suspected sightings of enemy warships or mines prior to June 1942. The Royal Australian Air Force was also responsible for the protection of shipping within the Australia Station, throughout the war, RAAF aircraft escorted convoys and conducted reconnaissance and anti-submarine patrols from bases around Australia. The main types of aircraft used for maritime patrol were Avro Ansons, Bristol Beauforts, Consolidated PBY Catalinas, following the outbreak of the Pacific War, RAAF fighter squadrons were also stationed to protect key Australian ports and escorted shipping in areas where air attack was feared. The Allied naval forces assigned to the Australia Station were considerably increased following Japans entry into the war and these naval forces were supported by a large increase in the RAAFs maritime patrol force and the arrival of United States Navy patrol aircraft. In addition to the air and naval forces assigned to protect shipping in Australian waters, the Australian Army was responsible for developing and manning coastal defences to protect ports from attacks by enemy surface raiders. These defences commonly consisted of a number of fixed guns defended by anti-aircraft guns, the Armys coastal defences were considerably expanded as the threat to Australia increased between 1940 and 1942, and reached their peak strength in 1944. The Royal Australian Navy was responsible for developing and manning harbour defences in Australias main ports and these defences consisted of fixed anti-submarine booms and mines supported by small patrol craft, and were also greatly expanded as the threat to Australia increased. The RAN also laid minefields in Australian waters from August 1941. While German surface raiders operated in the western Indian Ocean in 1939 and early 1940, while Remo was docked at Fremantle and was easily captured, Romolo proved harder to catch, as she had left Brisbane on 5 June bound for Italy. Following an air and sea search, Romolo was intercepted by HMAS Manoora near Nauru on 12 June and was scuttled by her captain to avoid capture, the German surface raider Orion was the first Axis warship to operate in Australian waters during World War II

Axis naval activity in Australian waters
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A Bathurst-classcorvette. This class of ship was commonly used to escort convoys in Australian waters.
Axis naval activity in Australian waters
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A propaganda poster calling on Australians to avenge the sinking of the Australian hospital shipCentaur by the Japanese submarine I-177 in May 1943.
Axis naval activity in Australian waters
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A troop convoy escorted by a RAAF Lockheed Hudson aircraft
Axis naval activity in Australian waters
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Drummond Battery coastal defence gun emplacement near Port Kembla in 1944

36.
Indian Ocean raid
–
The Indian Ocean raid was a naval sortie by the fast carrier strike force of the Imperial Japanese Navy from 31 March to 10 April 1942 against Allied shipping and bases in the Indian Ocean. It was an engagement of the Pacific campaign of World War II. The island of Ceylon was strategically important, since it commanded the Indian Ocean, thus it controlled access to India, the vital Allied shipping routes to the Middle East and the oilfields of the Persian Gulf. Ceylon held most of the British Empires resources of rubber, an important harbour and naval base, Trincomalee, was located on the island’s eastern coast. Japanese propaganda had an effect on some of the Sinhalese population, the Japanese force, commanded by Admiral Chūichi Nagumo, had six carriers, Akagi, Ryūjō, Hiryū, Sōryū, Shōkaku, and Zuikaku. This powerful force left Staring Bay, Celebes on 26 March 1942, somerville also deployed a small number of submarines. The heavy cruiser HMS Cornwall was sent to Ceylon to meet a convoy along with Dorsetshire. The first Japanese raids were against shipping in the Bay of Bengal by the carrier Ryūjō, five more were sunk by submarines off Indias west coast. On the evening of 4 April, the Japanese fleet was detected 400 mi south of Ceylon by a Catalina flying boat flown by Squadron Leader Leonard Birchall of 413 Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force. The location of the fleet was transmitted before the Catalina was shot down by an A6M2 Zero fighter from Hiryū. On 5 April 1942, the Japanese struck with a force of 125 aircraft, made up of 36 Aichi D3A2 dive bombers and 53 Nakajima B5N2 torpedo bombers, with 36 Zero fighters as escort. The aircraft, under the command of Commander Mitsuo Fuchida of Akagi—who had led the attack on Pearl Harbor—made landfall near Galle, the planes flew up the coast for half an hour in full view from land, but the RAF was not informed at Ratmalana. RAF aircraft were on the ground as the Japanese flew overhead, the Japanese attacked the naval base at Colombo, Ceylon, sinking the armed merchant cruiser HMS Hector and the old destroyer HMS Tenedos in the harbour. Eighteen Japanese planes were lost to heavy anti-aircraft fire, the Japanese only admitted to five losses, three of them over land — as only three destroyed planes were discovered on land. The RAF lost at least 27 aircraft, Japanese search planes located Cornwall and Dorsetshire — commanded by Captain Augustus Agar—200 mi southwest of Ceylon where they were proceeding at high speed to rejoin Somervilles command. A second attack wave sank the ships, killing 424 men, somerville continued to probe for the IJN carriers on the night of 5 April 1942 failing to find the IJN ships. The RNs only opportunity to launch a strike against enemy aircraft carriers faded away, on 6 April heavy cruisers Kumano and Suzuya with destroyer Shirakumo sank the British merchant ships Silksworth, Autolycus, Malda and Shinkuang and the American ship Exmoor. Also on 6 April, the Indian sloop HMIS Indus was sunk by air attack off the coast of Burma, on 9 April, the Japanese attacked the harbour at Trincomalee at 07,00

Indian Ocean raid
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British heavy cruisersHMS Dorsetshire and Cornwall under Japanese air attack and heavily damaged on 5 April 1942.
Indian Ocean raid
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The Japanese strike force advancing to the Indian Ocean. Ships shown from left to right are: Akagi, Soryu, Hiryu, Hiei, Kirishima, Haruna, and Kongo. Taken from Zuikaku, March 30
Indian Ocean raid
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HMS Cornwall burning and sinking on 5 April 1942
Indian Ocean raid
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Hermes sinking after Japanese air attack on 9 April 1942.

37.
Solomon Islands campaign
–
The Solomon Islands campaign was a major campaign of the Pacific War of World War II. The campaign began with Japanese landings and occupation of areas in the British Solomon Islands and Bougainville, in the Territory of New Guinea. In a campaign of attrition fought on land, on sea, and in the air, the Allies retook some of the Solomon Islands, and they also isolated and neutralized some Japanese positions, which were then bypassed. The Solomon Islands campaign then converged with the New Guinea campaign, on December 7,1941, after failing to resolve a dispute with the United States over Japans actions in China and French Indochina, the Japanese attacked the US Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The attack crippled most of the U. S, Pacific Fleets battleships and started a formal state of war between the two nations. In launching this war, Japanese leaders sought to neutralize the U. S. fleet, seize possessions rich in natural resources, and obtain strategic military bases to defend their far-flung empire. Anchoring its defensive positions in the South Pacific was the major Japanese army and navy base at Rabaul, New Britain, which had been captured from the Australians in January 1942. In March and April, Japanese forces occupied and began constructing an airfield at Buka in northern Bougainville, as well as an airfield, in April 1942, the Japanese army and navy together initiated Operation Mo, a joint plan to capture Port Moresby in New Guinea. Also part of the plan was an operation to capture Tulagi in the southern Solomons. The Japanese Navy also proposed an invasion of Australia. Japanese naval forces successfully captured Tulagi but its invasion of Port Moresby was repulsed at the Battle of the Coral Sea, shortly thereafter, the Japanese navy established small garrisons on the other northern and central Solomon Islands. One month later, the Japanese Combined Fleet lost four of its aircraft carriers at the Battle of Midway. The Allies countered the threats to Australia by a build-up of troops and aircraft, with the aim of implementing plans to approach and reconquer the Philippines. In March 1942 Admiral Ernest King, then Commander-in Chief of the U. S. Fleet, had advocated an offense from New Hebrides through the Solomon Islands to the Bismarck Archipelago. The United States Navy advocated a gradual approach from New Guinea. These competing proposals were resolved by Admiral King and U. S. Army Chief of Staff General George C, Marshall, who adopted a three-task plan. Task One was the capture of the island of Tulagi in the Solomons, task Two was an advance along the New Guinea coast. Task Three was the capture of Rabaul, task One, implemented by a directive of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on 2 July 1942 and named the initial attacks Operation Watchtower, became the Solomon Islands campaign

Solomon Islands campaign
–
Map of the Solomon Islands showing the Allied advance during 1943 and key air and naval bases.

38.
Battle of the Coral Sea
–
The battle was the first action in which aircraft carriers engaged each other, as well as the first in which neither sides ships sighted or fired directly upon the other. Fletcher, to oppose the Japanese offensive, on 3–4 May, Japanese forces successfully invaded and occupied Tulagi, although several of their supporting warships were surprised and sunk or damaged by aircraft from the US fleet carrier Yorktown. Now aware of the presence of US carriers in the area, beginning on 7 May, the carrier forces from the two sides exchanged airstrikes over two consecutive days. The first day, the US sank the Japanese light carrier Shōhō, while the Japanese sank a US destroyer, the next day, the Japanese fleet carrier Shōkaku was heavily damaged, the US fleet carrier Lexington was critically damaged, and the Yorktown was damaged. With both sides having suffered losses in aircraft and carriers damaged or sunk, the two fleets disengaged and retired from the battle area. Because of the loss of air cover, Inoue recalled the Port Moresby invasion fleet. Although a tactical victory for the Japanese in terms of ships sunk, the battle marked the first time since the start of the war that a major Japanese advance had been checked by the Allies. The severe losses in carriers at Midway prevented the Japanese from reattempting to invade Port Moresby from the ocean, on 7 December 1941, using aircraft carriers, Japan attacked the U. S. Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, the attack destroyed or crippled most of the U. S. Pacific Fleets battleships and brought the United States into the war, in launching this war, Japanese leaders sought to neutralize the American fleet, seize territory rich in natural resources, and obtain strategic military bases to defend their far-flung empire. At the same time that they were attacking Pearl Harbor, the Japanese attacked Malaya, causing Britain, Australia, Japan planned to use these conquered territories to establish a perimeter defense for its empire from which it expected to employ attritional tactics to defeat or exhaust any Allied counterattacks. The Imperial Japanese Army, however, rejected the recommendation, stating that it did not have the forces or shipping capacity available to such an operation. Inoue believed the capture and control of these locations would provide greater security, in April 1942, the army and navy developed a plan that was titled Operation MO. The plan called for Port Moresby to be invaded from the ocean, upon the completion of MO, the navy planned to initiate Operation RY, using ships released from MO, to seize Nauru and Ocean Island for their phosphate deposits on 15 May. Further operations against Fiji, Samoa and New Caledonia were to be planned once MO, Inoue was especially worried about Allied bombers stationed at air bases in Townsville and Cooktown, Australia, beyond the range of his own bombers located at Rabaul and Lae. By March 1942, the U. S. was able to decipher up to 15% of the IJNs Ro or Naval Codebook D code which was used by the IJN for approximately half of its communications. By the end of April the Americans were reading up to 85% of the signals broadcast in the Ro code, in March 1942, the U. S. first noticed mention of the MO operation in intercepted messages. On 5 April, the Americans intercepted an IJN message directing a carrier and other warships to proceed to Inoues area of operations

Battle of the Coral Sea
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United States Navy aircraft carrier Lexington explodes on 8 May 1942, several hours after being damaged by a Japanese carrier air attack.
Battle of the Coral Sea
Battle of the Coral Sea
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Japanese advances in the Southwest Pacific from December 1941 to April 1942
Battle of the Coral Sea
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Shigeyoshi Inoue, commander of the 4th Fleet of the Imperial Japan Navy

39.
American Theater (World War II)
–
The American Theater describes a series of mostly minor areas of operations during World War II. This was mainly due to both North and South Americas geographical separation from the theaters of conflict in Europe and Asia. Thus, any threat by the Axis Powers to invade the mainland United States or other areas was considered negligible, the best known events in North America during World War II were the Aleutian Islands Campaign, the Battle of the St. Lawrence, and the attacks on Newfoundland. Battle of the River Plate The first naval battle during the war was fought on December 13,1939 off the Atlantic coast of South America, the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee encountered one of the British naval units searching for her. Composed of three Royal Navy cruisers, the HMS Exeter, Ajax, and Achilles, the unit was patrolling off the River Plate estuary of Argentina, in a bloody engagement, the Graf Spee successfully repulsed the British attacks. Captain Hans Langsdorff then brought his ship to shelter in neutral Uruguay for repairs. German combat losses were 96 killed or wounded, against 72 British sailors killed and 28 wounded, two Royal Navy cruisers had been severely damaged, but it had cost the German navy one of its finest ships. Even before the war, a large Nazi spy ring was operating in the United States. The Duquesne Spy Ring is still the largest espionage case in United States history that ended in convictions. The 33 German agents who formed the Duquesne spy ring were placed in key jobs in the United States to get information that could be used in the event of war and to carry out acts of sabotage. William G. Sebold, an agent for the United States, was a major factor in the FBIs successful resolution of this case. For nearly two years, Sebold ran a radio station in New York for the ring. Sebold provided the FBI with information on what Germany was sending to its spies in the United States while allowing the FBI to control the information that was being transmitted to Germany. On June 29,1941, six months before the U. S. declared war, all 33 spies were arrested, found or plead guilty, and sentenced to serve a total of over 300 years in prison. After declaring war on the United States following the attack on Pearl Harbor, the responsibility for carrying this out was given to German Intelligence. In the spring of 1942, nine agents were recruited and divided into two teams, on June 12,1942, the German submarine U-202 landed Daschs team with explosives and plans at Amagansett, New York. Their mission was to power plants at Niagara Falls and three Aluminum Company of America factories in Illinois, Tennessee, and New York. However, Dasch instead turned himself in to the FBI, providing them with a complete list of his members and an account of the planned missions

40.
Marshalls-Gilberts raids
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The Japanese garrisons were under the overall command of Vice Admiral Shigeyoshi Inoue, commander of the 4th Fleet. Japanese aircraft in the islands belonged to the IJNs 24th Air Flotilla under Rear Admiral Eiji Gotō, the U. S. warship forces were under the overall command of Vice Admiral William Halsey, Jr. The raids were carried out by two separate U. S. carrier task forces, aircraft from Task Force 17, commanded by Rear Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher and centered on the carrier USS Yorktown, attacked Jaluit, Mili, and Makin islands. The Yorktown aircraft inflicted moderate damage to the Japanese naval installations on the islands, seven Yorktown aircraft were lost, as well as a floatplane from one of TF 17s cruisers. Aircraft from TF8, commanded by Halsey and centered on the carrier USS Enterprise, struck Kwajalein, Wotje, at the same time, cruisers and destroyers bombarded Wotje and Taroa. The heavy cruiser USS Chester was hit and slightly damaged by a Japanese aerial bomb, tFs 8 and 17 retired from the area immediately upon completion of the raids. The raids had little long-term strategic impact, the raids, however, did help lift the morale of the U. S. Navy and American public, still reeling from the Pearl Harbor attack and loss of Wake Island. The raids also provided valuable experience in air operations, which hardened the U. S. carrier groups for future combat against Japanese forces. Yamamotos plan to do so resulted in the Battle of Midway, the First Team, Pacific Naval Air Combat from Pearl Harbor to Midway. Black Shoe Carrier Admiral, Frank Jack Fletcher at Coral Seas, annapolis, Maryland, USA, Naval Institute Press. The Rising Sun in the Pacific 1931 – April 1942, vol.3 of History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, the Big E, The Story of the USS Enterprise. Empires in the Balance, Japanese and Allied Pacific Strategies to April 1942, the Barrier and the Javelin, Japanese and Allied Pacific Strategies February to June 1942. HIJMS Katori, Tabular Record of Movement, United States Navy, Office of Naval Intelligence. Early Raids in the Pacific Ocean, February 1 to March 10,1942, USS Enterprise photo archive of the raid

Marshalls-Gilberts raids
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A bomb-laden SBD-2 Dauntless dive bomber prepares to take off from the U.S. carrier Enterprise during the raids on February 1.

41.
Doolittle Raid
–
The raid was planned and led by Lieutenant Colonel James Jimmy Doolittle of the United States Army Air Forces. Sixteen B-25B Mitchell medium bombers were launched without fighter escort from the U. S. Navys aircraft carrier USS Hornet deep in the Western Pacific Ocean, each with a crew of five men. The plan called for them to military targets in Japan. Fifteen aircraft reached China, but all crashed, while the 16th landed at Vladivostok in the Soviet Union, all but three of the 80 crew members initially survived the mission. Eight airmen were captured by the Japanese Army in China, three of those were later executed, the B-25 that landed in the Soviet Union was confiscated and its crew interned for more than a year. Fourteen complete crews, except for one crewman who was killed in action, Doolittle, who initially believed that the loss of all his aircraft would lead to his court-martial, received the Medal of Honor and was promoted two steps to brigadier general. The raid had its start in a desire by President Franklin D, an attack on the Japanese homeland would cause confusion in the minds of the Japanese people and sow doubt about the reliability of their leaders. There was a second, and equally important, psychological reason for this attack, Americans badly needed a morale boost. The concept for the attack came from Navy Captain Francis Low, Assistant Chief of Staff for anti-submarine warfare, the attack was planned and led by Doolittle, a famous military test pilot, civilian aviator and aeronautical engineer before the war. Requirements that the aircraft have a range of 2,400 nautical miles with a 2. The range of the Mitchell at the time was only about 1,300 miles, the B-18, one of the final two types considered by Doolittle, was rejected for the same reason. The B-25 had yet to be tested in combat, but subsequent tests indicated it could fulfill the missions requirements. Doolittles first report on the plan suggested the bombers might land in Vladivostok, negotiations with the Soviet Union for permission to land were fruitless because it had signed a neutrality pact with Japan in April 1941. The raid was approved and the 17th Bomb Group was chosen to provide the pool of crews from which volunteers would be recruited. The 17th BG had been the first group to receive B-25s, the 17th not only was the first medium bomb group of the Army Air Corps, but in the spring of 1942 also had the most experienced B-25 crews. Its first assignment following the entry of the United States into the war was to the U. S, the group officially transferred effective 9 February to Columbia, where its combat crews were offered the opportunity to volunteer for an extremely hazardous, but unspecified mission. On 19 February, the group was detached from the Eighth Air Force, initial planning called for 20 aircraft to fly the mission, and 24 of the groups B-25B Mitchell bombers were diverted to the Mid-Continent Airlines modification center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. With support provided by two senior managers, Wold-Chamberlain Fields maintenance hangar was the first modification center to become operational

42.
Operation RY
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Operation RY was the Imperial Japanese plan to invade and occupy Nauru and Ocean islands in the south Pacific during the Pacific conflict of World War II. The operation was set to be executed in May 1942 immediately following Operation MO and before Operation MI. The primary reason for the operation was to exploit the islands supplies of phosphate, after a postponement due to interference by enemy forces, the operation was completed in August 1942. Before and during World War II, Nauru and Ocean Island were isolated, the islands were under Australian mandate control, with the British Phosphate Commissioners running the phosphate mining. The phosphate deposits were mined for making ammunition, explosives and fertilizers, the German auxiliary cruisers Orion and Komet sank five merchant ships and bombarded the island causing damage to the phosphate mining, disrupting the Allied production of phosphate. Following the raids, the Australian Commonwealth Naval Board requested that the British Admiralty redeploy Australian naval units to meet the threat posed by raiders, a naval company and two field guns were deployed to each island. The attacks also led to the introduction of convoys between Australia and New Zealand, in late February 1942, as a Japanese invasion of Nauru and Ocean Island was feared, the Free French destroyer Triomphant departed the New Hebrides to evacuate both places. The ship arrived on 23 February and completed the evacuation without serious incident, the invasion troops from the 6th Special Naval Landing Force and Kashima SNLF were carried by the transports Kinryū Maru and Takahata Maru. The invasion forces escorts closed S-42 and depth charged the area until 1130, the submarine left the area to return to base at Moreton Bay, Brisbane. Rear Admiral Shima transferred his flag to Yūzuki southwest of Buka Island, at 06,40, Okinoshima capsized under tow by Mochizuki in St. Georges Channel at 05°06′S 153°48′E. While returning to Rabaul after being dispatched to assist repair work on Okinoshima and she sank at 1440 at 04°51′S 152°54′E. In spite of the loss of Okinoshima, the rest of the Japanese forces continued with the operation, as these forces were en route, however, a Japanese reconnaissance aircraft from Tulagi sighted the United States Navy aircraft carriers USS Enterprise and Hornet heading towards Nauru. The two US carriers, acting on intelligence obtained from intercepted Japanese communications, had sent to the area as a feint to try to stop the Japanese operation. Fearing the threat posed by the US carriers to the RY forces, which did not have air cover, the Japanese cancelled the operation on 15 May, and the naval forces returned to Rabaul. A second invasion force departed Truk on 26 August 1942, consisting of the cruiser Yūbari, the destroyers Oite, Yūzuki, Ariake, Yūgure and Yūnagi, the landing forces landed on Nauru on 29 August and Ocean Island on 30 August unopposed. Japanese forces occupied the two islands until the end of the war, but became isolated as the war progressed. During the Japanese occupation of Nauru, American aircraft repeatedly bombed the islands facilities, warship Losses of World War Two. Black Shoe Carrier Admiral, Frank Jack Fletcher at Coral Sea, Midway, the First Team, Pacific Naval Air Combat from Pearl Harbor to Midway

Operation RY
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Map of the Coral Sea area with Nauru and Ocean (Banaba) islands in the top right corner.

43.
Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign
–
They were the first steps of the drive across the central Pacific by the United States Pacific Fleet and Marine Corps. The purpose was to establish airfields and naval bases that would allow air, operations Galvanic and Kourbash were the code names for the Gilberts campaign that included the seizures of Tarawa and Makin. Operations Flintlock and Catchpole were aimed at capturing Japanese Bases at Kwajalein, Eniwetok, the Imperial Japanese Navy occupied the Gilbert Islands three days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. They built a base on Makin and dispersed troops along the coastlines of the atolls to monitor the Allied forces movement in the South Pacific. Approximately 220 miles northwest of the Gilbert Islands, the Marshall Islands were also occupied by the Japanese, Allied commanders knew that an eventual surrender of Japan would require penetration of these islands. While commander of the U. S. Army General Douglas MacArthur wanted to push towards the Philippines via New Guinea and these outer islands included the atolls of Tarawa and Makin in the Gilberts, and Majuro, Kwajalein, and Eniwetok in the Marshalls. Following Carlsons Raiders diversionary Makin Island raid and the defeat at Guadalcanal, fortifications were quickly improved by the Japanese, starting in March 1943. Makin Atoll had a base built on the main island of Butaritari, while Tarawa housed barely enough room for an airfield on its largest island. Lieutenant Junior Grade Seizo Ishikawa, the Japanese commander in charge of defending Makin and these included 8-inch coastal defense guns, 37-mm anti-tank gun positions, machine gun emplacements, rifle pits, 15-foot deep tank barriers with anti-tank guns, and barbed wire. These were designed to hold the island until reinforcements could arrive, on Tarawa, Shibasaki Keiji had 4,836 troops, including around 2,600 Special Naval Landing Forces,1,000 Japanese construction workers, and 1,200 Korean laborers. He planned to use units to primarily defend Betio, the largest island in the atoll. Betio was the site of a crucial Japanese airfield, after the Gilberts fell to the Americans in late November 1943, Admiral Mineichi Koga of the Japanese Combined Fleet was unsure of which islands the Americans would strike. Without any carrier aircraft to him, he ordered Admiral Masashi Kobayashi to disperse his 28,000 troops primarily to the outer islands of Maloelap, Wotje, Jaliuit. However, Allied intelligence intercepted Imperial code, informing the Americans of which islands were heavily defended. The Americans decided to invade the least protected but strategically important islands of Majuro, Kwajalein, as early as November, B-24s from the 7th Air Force stationed in the Ellice Islands had flown bombing missions over Mili and Maloelap. Four transports and fifty Japanese aircraft were lost, but the attack lacked strategic value, fearing a counterattack from Wotje, Pownall ordered a second strike against the island. The Japanese did counterattack via a bombing strike, in which Lexington sustained a torpedo hit but was not sunk. The task force returned to Pearl Harbor

Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign
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An SBD Dauntless flies patrol over the USS Washington and USS Lexington during the Gilbert and Marshall islands campaign.

44.
Mariana and Palau Islands campaign
–
Beginning the offensive, United States Marine Corps and United States Army forces, with support from the United States Navy, executed landings on Saipan in June,1944. In response, the Imperial Japanese Navys combined fleet sortied to attack the U. S. Navy fleet supporting the landings, thereafter, U. S. forces executed landings on Guam and Tinian in July,1944. After heavy fighting, Saipan was secured in July and Guam, after heavy and intense combat on Peleliu, the island was finally secured by U. S. forces in November,1944. Battle of Angaur Battle of Guam Battle of Peleliu Battle of Saipan Battle of Tinian West Loch Disaster DAlbas, death of a Navy, Japanese Naval Action in World War II. Hold the Marianas, The Japanese Defense of the Mariana Islands, an Allied Interpretation of the Pacific War. In the Service of the Emperor, Essays on the Imperial Japanese Army, a Battle History of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1941–1945. The Liberation of Guam 21 July–10 August, nautical & Aviation Pub Co of Amer. Goldberg, Harold J. D-day in the Pacific, The Battle of Saipan, the Devils Anvil, The Assault on Peleliu. New Guinea and the Marianas, March 1944–August 1944, vol.8 of History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, champaign, Illinois, USA, University of Illinois Press. Ross, Bill D. Peleliu, Tragic Triumph, Saipan & Tinian 1944, Piercing the Japanese Empire. Peleliu 1944, The Forgotten Corner of Hell, brotherhood of Heroes, The Marines at Peleliu,1944, The Bloodiest Battle of the Pacific War. Carrier Battles, Command Decision in Harms Way, to the Far Side of Hell, The Battle for Peleliu,1944. The Marianas and the Great Turkey Shoot, the Amphibians Came to Conquer, The Story of Admiral Richmond Kelly Turner. Breaching the Marianas, The Battle for Saipan Hoffman, Major Carl W. USMC, Saipan, The Beginning of the End. Historical Branch, United States Marine Corps, cS1 maint, Multiple names, authors list Anderson, Charles R. U. S. Army Campaigns of World War II, United States Army Center of Military History. Lodge, Major O. R. USMC Historical Monograph, The Recapture of Guam, Historical Branch, United States Marine Corps,1954. OBrien, Cyril J. Liberation, Marines in the Recapture of Guam, Marines in World War II Commemorative Series, Marine Corps Historical Center, USCM Historical Monograph, The Seizure of Tinian Chen, C

Mariana and Palau Islands campaign
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A U.S. amphibious tractor loaded with Marines approaches Tinian during the U.S. landings on that island

45.
Indian Ocean in World War II
–
Axis naval forces gave a high priority to disrupting Allied Indian Ocean trade. Initial anti-shipping measures of unrestricted submarine warfare and covert raiding ships expanded to include airstrikes by aircraft carriers, a Kriegsmarine Monsun Gruppe of U-boats operated from the eastern Indian Ocean after the Persian Corridor became an important military supply route to the Soviet Union. 15 November 1939, Australian, British and French warships began patrolling the Indian Ocean when the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee sank the tanker Africa Shell south of Madagascar. 23 March 1940, The Royal Navy established the Malaya Force of cruisers, destroyers,11 May 1940, German merchant raider Atlantis entered the Indian Ocean from the South Atlantic. 7 June 1940, Italian warships began minelaying off Massawa and Assab,10 June 1940, Eight Italian submarines began war patrols of the Indian Ocean from Massawa. 10 June 1940, Atlantis captured the freighter Tirranna in the Central Indian Ocean,16 June 1940, Italian submarine Galileo Galilei sank the tanker James Stove. 19 June 1940, Galileo Galilei was captured by the British naval trawler Moonstone,23 June 1940, Italian submarine Torricelli sank HMS Khartoum before being sunk by accompanying destroyers. 24 June 1940, Italian submarine Galvani sank the sloop HMIS Pathan before being sunk by the sloop HMS Falmouth,11 July 1940, Atlantis sank the freighter City of Bagdad south of India. 13 July 1940, Atlantis sank the freighter Kemmendine south of India,2 August 1940, Atlantis sank the freighter Tallyrand in the central Indian Ocean. 17 August 1940, Royal Navy and Royal Australian Navy cruisers and destroyers covered the withdrawal of British troops from British Somaliland to Aden,24 August 1940, Atlantis sank the freighter King City in the Central Indian Ocean. 26 August 1940, German merchant raider Pinguin sank the tanker Filefjell south of Madagascar,27 August 1940, Pinguin sank the tanker British Commander and the freighter Morviken south of Madagascar. 6 September 1940, Italian submarine Guglielmotti sank the tanker Atlas in the Red Sea,9 September 1940, Atlantis sank the tanker Athelking in the central Indian Ocean. 10 September 1940, Atlantis sank the freighter Benarty in the central Indian Ocean,12 September 1940, Pinguin sank the freighter Benavon east of Madagascar. 16 September 1940, Pinguin captured the freighter Nordvard in the central Indian Ocean,20 September 1940, Atlantis sank the liner Commissaire Ramel west of Sumatra. 7 October 1940, Pinguin captured the tanker Storstad south of Java,21 October 1940, Italian destroyer Nullo was sunk during the battle of Mumbai to Suez Canal convoy BN7. 22 October 1940, Atlantis captured the freighter Durmitor west of Sumatra,9 November 1940, Atlantis sank the freighter Teddy west of Sumatra. 10 November 1940, Atlantis captured the tanker Ole Jacob west of Sumatra,11 November 1940, Atlantis sank the freighter Automedon west of Sumatra. 18 November 1940, HMS Dorsetshire shelled Italian Somaliland,18 November 1940, Pinguin sank the freighter Nowshera west of Australia

Indian Ocean in World War II
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The pocket battleshipAdmiral Graf Spee brought World War II to the Indian Ocean in 1939.
Indian Ocean in World War II
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Atlantis was the first disguised commerce raider in the Indian Ocean.
Indian Ocean in World War II
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Galileo Galilei was one of eight Italian submarines operating out of Massawa, and is shown here being captured by the Royal Navy.
Indian Ocean in World War II
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HMS Hermes as a convoy escort during the first year of wartime patrols.

46.
Franco-Thai War
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The Franco-Thai War was fought between Thailand and France over certain areas of French Indochina. The German military occupation of a part of France made Frances hold on its overseas possessions, including Indochina. The colonial administration was now cut off from help and outside supplies. After the Japanese invasion of French Indochina in September 1940, the French were forced to allow Japan to set up military bases and this seemingly subservient behaviour convinced the Phibun regime that France would not seriously resist a confrontation with Thailand. The most obvious deficiency of the French army was its shortage of armour and it could field only 20 Renault FT tanks against the nearly one hundred armoured vehicles of the Royal Thai Army. The French navy in Indochina had one light cruiser and four Avisos, the Armée de lAir had approximately 100 aircraft, of which about 60 could be considered front line. The slightly larger Thai Army was a relatively well-equipped force, consisting of 60,000 men, it was made up of four armies. The largest was the Burapha Army with five divisions and the Isan Army with three divisions, the artillery was a mixture of Krupp guns and modern Bofors guns and Howitzers, while 60 Carden Loyd tankettes and 30 Vickers 6-ton tanks made up the bulk of the armys tank force. The Royal Thai Navy included two coastal ships,12 torpedo boats, and four Japanese-made submarines. The Thai navy was inferior to the French naval forces, while nationalist demonstrations and anti-French rallies were being held in Bangkok, several border skirmishes erupted along the Mekong frontier. The superior Royal Thai Air Force then conducted daytime bombing runs over targets in Vientiane, Phnom Penh, Sisophon. The French retaliated with their own air attacks, but the damage caused was less than equal. On 5 January 1941, following the report of a French attack on the Thai border town of Aranyaprathet, French response was instantaneous, but many units were simply swept along by the better-equipped Thai forces. The Thai army swiftly overran Laos, but the French forces in Cambodia managed to rally, at dawn on 16 January 1941 the French launched a large counterattack on the Thai-held villages of Yang Dang Khum and Phum Preav, initiating the fiercest battle of the war. Due to poor co-ordination and non-existent intelligence against the entrenched and prepared Thai forces, however, the Thais were unable to pursue the retreating French, as their forward tanks were kept in check by the gunnery of French Foreign Legion artillery. With the situation on land rapidly deteriorating for the French, Admiral Decoux ordered all available French naval forces into action in the Gulf of Thailand. In the early morning of 17 January, a French naval squadron caught a Thai naval detachment by surprise at anchor off Ko Chang island, fearing the war would turn in Frances favour, the Japanese intervened, proposing an armistice be signed. On 24 January, the air battle took place when Thai bombers raided the French airfield at Angkor

Franco-Thai War
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French Indochina
Franco-Thai War
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French troops used a handful of World War I-era Renault FT tanks during the conflict
Franco-Thai War
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The French Armée de l'Air flew Morane-Saulnier M.S.406 fighters (a preserved specimen is shown)
Franco-Thai War
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The Vickers Light Amphibious Tank saw service in the Thaï (Siamese) army

47.
Japanese conquest of Burma
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The Japanese conquest of Burma was the opening chapter of the Burma Campaign in the South-East Asian Theatre of World War II, which took place over four years from 1942 to 1945. Before the Second World War broke out, Burma was part of the British Empire, initially governed as part of British India, Burma was formed into a separate colony under the Government of India Act 1935. Under British rule, there had been substantial economic development but the majority Bamar community was becoming increasingly restive, when Burma came under attack, the Bamar were unwilling to contribute to the defence of the British establishment, and many readily joined movements which aided the Japanese. British plans for the defence of British Far Eastern possessions involved the construction of airfields linking Singapore and Malaya with India. These plans had not taken into account the fact that Britain was also at war with Germany, and when Japan entered the war, Burma had been regarded as a military backwater, unlikely to be subjected to Japanese threat. During the war, the British Indian Army expanded more than twelve-fold from its strength of 200,000. In most cases, such training and equipment as the Indian units in Burma received was for operations in the Western Desert campaign or the North West Frontier of India, rather than jungles. The battalions of the Burma Rifles which formed most of the 1st Burma Division were originally raised as internal security troops only and they also had been rapidly expanded, with an influx of Bamar soldiers, and were short of equipment and consisted mainly of new recruits. Japan entered the war primarily to obtain raw materials, especially oil, an additional factor was the Burma Road completed in 1938, which linked Lashio, at the end of a railway from the port of Rangoon, with the Chinese province of Yunnan. This newly completed link was being used to aid and munitions to the Chinese Nationalist forces of Chiang Kai-Shek which had been fighting the Japanese for several years. The Japanese naturally wished to cut this link, the army consisted initially of the highly regarded 33rd Division and the 55th Division, although both divisions were weakened for several weeks by detachments to other operations. As the threat of war grew, the Japanese sought links with potential allies in Burma, in late 1940 Aung San, a Burmese student activist, made contact with Japanese officers on Amoy and was flown to Japan for talks. He and several volunteers were later given intensive military training on Hainan Island. The Burma Independence Army was officially founded in Bangkok on 28 December 1941, the first Japanese attack in mid-January 1942 against Victoria Point, almost the most southerly point of Burma, was expected and was not contested. The second attack was a small probing raid directed at a station in southern Tenasserim. The Japanese 143 Infantry Regiment then launched attacks on the airfields at Tavoy. The airfields were difficult to defend and reinforce, but Burma Army HQ had been ordered to hold these outposts because of their importance to the defence of Malaya, the Japanese forced their way over the steep jungle-covered Tenasserim Range, and attacked Tavoy on 18 January. The defenders, the 3rd and 6th battalions of the Burma Rifles, were overwhelmed and forced to evacuate the town in disorder, Mergui was evacuated before it was attacked

Japanese conquest of Burma
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Troops of Japanese Fifteenth Army on the border of Burma
Japanese conquest of Burma
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Electrical equipment and oil installations at Yenanguang being destroyed as part of the "scorched earth" policy, in the face of the Japanese advance
Japanese conquest of Burma
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Japanese advance and Allied retreat

48.
Burma Campaign 1944
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The fighting in the Burma Campaign in 1944 was among the most severe in the South-East Asian Theatre of World War II. British Commonwealth land forces were primarily from the United Kingdom, British India. The Japanese forestalled them by launching their own offensive into India, and this handicapped the Japanese attempts to defend Burma against renewed Allied offensives in the following year. After the Japanese conquest of Burma in early 1942, the Allies had launched tentative counterattacks in late 1942 and early 1943, despite lack of preparation and resources. This resulted in a defeat in the coastal Arakan Province of Burma, in August 1943 the Allies created South East Asia Command, a new combined command responsible for the South-East Asian Theatre. Its Commander in Chief was Admiral Louis Mountbatten and this brought a new sense of purpose and in November, when SEAC took over responsibility for Burma, the newly formed British Fourteenth Army was ready to take the offensive. The substantial improvement in the effectiveness of the troops which Fourteenth Army inherited has been credited to its commander, Slims efforts were aided by improvements to the Allied supply lines. By October 1944, capacity on the North-East Indian Railways had been raised to 4,400 tons a day from 600 tons a day at the start of the war. The first of these was to be on the Andaman Islands, the previous year, a British attack into the Burmese coastal province of Arakan had been heavily defeated. Having been reorganised, XV Corps had taken over part of the front and was preparing to renew the offensive with the aim of capturing Akyab Island, important for its port. A limited amphibious move in support of this attack had to be abandoned for lack of the landing craft. The American aim in the China Burma India Theater was to military aid and supplies to the Republic of China under Chiang Kai-shek. They had established an air route, known as the Hump. Stilwell proposed to construct a new road, the Ledo Road, to link India and China by land, although British leaders were sceptical about the value of this road and the effort devoted to it. By the start of 1944, the new road had reached the far side of the Patkai mountains, Chiang Kai-shek had agreed to mount an offensive across the Salween River into eastern Burma from Yunnan. When the Andaman Island landings were cancelled, he claimed this was a breach of faith and cancelled the Yunnan offensive, although he later reinstated it. This was opposed by Slim and others who felt that this was too great a drain on manpower and resources, the Chindits, designated Indian 3rd Infantry Division for cover purposes, were tasked with assisting Stilwell by disrupting the Japanese lines of supply to the northern front. About the same time that SEAC was established, the Japanese had created a new headquarters, Burma Area Army and its subordinate formations were the Japanese Fifteenth Army in the north and east of Burma and the Japanese Twenty-Eighth Army in the south and west

49.
Japanese coup de main in French Indochina
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The Japanese coup détat in French Indochina, known as Meigo Sakusen, was a Japanese operation that took place on 9 March 1945 towards the end of World War II. With Japanese forces losing the war and the threat of an Allied invasion of Indochina imminent, despite the French having anticipated an attack, the Japanese struck in a military campaign attacking garrisons all over the colony. The French were caught off guard and all of the garrisons were overrun with some then having to escape to Nationalist China where they were harshly interned, the Japanese replaced French officials, and effectively dismantled their control of Indochina. French Indochina comprised the colony of Cochinchina and the protectorates of Annam, Cambodia and Tonkin, after the fall of France in June 1940 the French Indochinese government had remained loyal to the Vichy regime. The following month governor Admiral Jean Decoux signed an agreement under which Japanese forces were permitted to occupy bases across Indochina, in September the same year Japanese troops invaded and took control of Northern Indochina, and then in July 1941 they occupied the Southern half as well. The Japanese allowed Vichy French troops and the administration to continue on albeit as puppets, by 1944 with the war going against the Japanese after defeats in Burma and the Philippines they then feared an Allied offensive in French Indochina. The Japanese were already suspicious of the French, the liberation of Paris in August 1944 raised further doubts as to where the loyalties of the colonial administration lay. Instead Decouxs army commander General Eugene Mordant, secretly became the Provisional Governments delegate, British intelligence, mission Force 136 air-dropped several Free French operatives into Indochina in late 1944. Six U. S. navy pilots were shot down but were picked up by French military authorities, the French refused to give the Americans up and when the Japanese prepared to storm the prison the men were smuggled out. The Japanese demanded their surrender but Decoux refused and General Yuitsu Tsuchihashi, Tsuchihashi could no longer trust Decoux to control his subordinates and asked for orders from Tokyo. The Japanese High command were reluctant for another front to be opened up in a poor situation. Several friendly puppet governments would then be established and win the support of the indigenous populations, in early 1945 the French Indochina army still outnumbered the Japanese and comprised about 65,000 men, of whom 48,500 were locally recruited Tirailleurs indochinois under French officers. The remainder were French regulars of the Colonial Army plus three battalions of the Foreign Legion, a separate force of indigenous gardes indochinois numbered 27,000. Since the fall of France in June 1940 no replacements or supplies had been received from outside Indochina, by March 1945 only about 30,000 French troops could be described as fully combat ready, the remainder serving in garrison or support units. In early March 1945 Japanese forces were redeployed around the main French garrison towns throughout Indochina, French officers and civilian officials were however forewarned of an attack through troop movements, and some garrisons were put on alert. Decoux however resisted stating that this would be a catalyst for an Allied invasion and this was not enough and the Tsuchihashi accused Decoux of playing for time. On 9 March, after more stalling by Decoux, Tsuchihashi delivered an ultimatum for French troops to disarm, Decoux sent a messenger to Matsumoto urging further negotiations but the message arrived at the wrong building. Tsuchihashi, assuming that Decoux had rejected the ultimatum, immediately ordered commencement of the coup and that evening Japanese forces moved against the French in every center

50.
Battle of the Malacca Strait
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Haguro had been operating as a supply ship for Japanese garrisons in the Dutch East Indies and the Bay of Bengal since 1 May 1945. On 9 May, Haguro left Singapore, escorted by the destroyer Kamikaze, to re-supply the Port Blair garrison on the Andaman Islands, the Royal Navy was alerted to this by a decrypted Japanese naval signal, subsequently confirmed by a sighting by the submarines HMS Statesman and Subtle. Force 61 of the Eastern Fleet set sail on 10 May from Trincomalee, the Japanese were unwilling to risk any battle and, on receipt of an air reconnaissance warning, they returned to Singapore. On 14 May, Haguro and Kamikaze tried again and left Singapore, the next day, they were spotted by aircraft from Force 61. The subsequent bombing attack by Grumman Avenger IIs of 851 Naval Air Squadron caused only minor damage to Haguro, information was relayed to the Japanese that two British destroyer squadrons had been sighted heading towards them. Again, they reversed course to return to the Malacca Strait and this change had been anticipated, however, and the 26th Destroyer Flotilla, commanded by Captain Manley Laurence Power steamed to intercept. In heavy rain squalls with lightning, Venus made radar contact at 34 nmi, the British destroyers arranged themselves in a crescent cordon and allowed the Japanese ships to sail into the trap. At 01,05, Venus, parallel to Haguro as she raced past the north-westernmost ship in Powers force, Haguro, thinking Venus had launched torpedoes, altered course away to comb the tracks. In so doing, she turned south and deeper into the trap, Saumarez and Verulam were now well positioned to make their attacks. Haguro appeared fine off Saumarezs port bow at a range of 6,000 yards, at the same time, the Japanese destroyer Kamikaze appeared off the starboard bow, crossing from starboard to port, only 3,000 yards away and on a collision course. Haguro now fired her first broadside of ten 8in and four 5in guns at Saumarez, tremendous waterspouts thrown up alongside swamped the British flotilla leaders upper decks as Haguro was seen clearly three miles away in the light of both sides star-shells. At 01,11, just as she was about to fire torpedoes, the top of her funnel disappeared over the side and a 5in shell penetrated No.1 Boiler Room, severed a steam main and lodged inside the boiler. Five men were scalded, two of whom died, but as with the 8in shell hits, this failed to explode at such close range and was later thrown overboard. At 01,15, Haguro was hit by three torpedoes from Saumarez and Verulam, as Saumarez limped northward from the immediate battle area, a violent explosion created confusion. Power thought it was Kamikaze blowing up and men on Virago and Vigilant thought it was Saumarez, Venus hit Haguro with one torpedo at 01,25, and Virago stopped Haguro with two more torpedo hits two minutes later. The Japanese cruiser finally sank at 02,06 after receiving another torpedo from Vigilant, Kamikaze was also damaged, but escaped, returning the next day to rescue survivors. About 320 survived, but over 900 died, including the Japanese commanders, Vice-Admiral Hashimoto, Saumarezs main aerial and a funnel top had been shot away and an 8 in shell nicked the forecastle. Two men were killed and three burned in the room when a 5 in shell severed the main steam pipe